Visiting London Bridge

Today, we decided to visit the London Bridge.

There was a nice pizza place overlooking the bridge so we got lunch. Below the restaurant, there were lots of tourist trap places to shop. We bought a magnet and post cards to mail to family. We walked around and under the bridge.

History Warning:

London Bridge was built in 1831. The bridge allowed foot, horse back, carriage and other traffic across the River Thames in London for over 130 years. As the vehicle traffic increased and overwhelmed the structural supports, the bridge began sinking into the River Thames.  It was dismantled by the City of London and put up for auction in 1967.

Robert McCulloch won the auction with a bid of $2.4 million.  He came up with the figure by doubling the cost of disassembly of the bridge plus $60,000 which was $1000 for each year of his own age.  The myth is that he thought he was buying the Tower Bridge but that was not true he was very aware of the bridge he was buying.  Over 10,000 blocks were shipped from London and through the Panama Canal to California and shipped by truck to Havasu City.

​Reconstruction of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, was complete in 1971.

​Re-assembly and dredging of a channel underneath cost $7 million.  The dredged sand was used to raise and expand the new island formed by the canal.  McCulloch made a lot of money from selling the island land and excess stone from the bridge.

The auction included lamp posts made from the melted-down cannons captured by the British from Napoleon's army, after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.  The lamp posts line the London Bridge today.

The bridge we see is a surface over a modern style steel structure.  This allows modern traffic to cross safely.  In some places, WWII bombing damage can be seen.

 

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The bridge looks pretty good being so old.

Next a little grocery shopping, a stop at a distillery and a brewery. Bill was the designated driver.

On our return to the resort, we drove across the dam that makes the river into Lake Havasu.

It is always good to be careful driving on the California side of the river because wild burros walk right out into the road. Today, we passed three.