A Short History Of The Old London Bridge

Behind me is London Bridge, one of the most iconic and recognisable locations in London. I have been a Londoner all my life and to the best of my knowledge, this has been the only London Bridge in existence. That was until a few weeks ago when I fell into a rabbit hole online looking at information about London and I found out that this bridge behind me is in fact one of two London bridges in existence.

What you are seeing on your screens right now is also London Bridge… But this one is in Lake Havasu City in Arizona… and it also began construction at the same time as this very bridge that you see behind me in 1967.
Now London Bridge has been around for a lot longer than that. In fact if Wikipedia as to be trusted then it’s been around since the year 1209 but the bridge built in that year isn’t the same one as the one behind me. In fact it was redesigned in 1831 by John Rennie and then again in 1967 by Lord Holford.

How then can London Bridge be in both London and Lake Havasu City at the same time?

Well firstly… What the hell is Lake Havasu City?

Well… the community first started as an Army camp, called "Site Six" during the Second World War. In 1958, American businessman Robert P. McCulloch purchased 3000 acres of property on the east side of the Lake Havasu and after four years of planning, McCulloch Properties acquired another 13,000 acres of federal land in the surrounding area.

What all this means is that a very rich guy decided there should be a city here and just plopped one down and according to the 2010 census, the population of the city was 52,527 people. Not too bad.

Hoping to attract tourists and potential buyers of residential lots to his new found city, McCulloch bought the actual stones that constructed the 1831 John Rennie London Bridge when it was being deconstructed in 1967, to make way for the new design that could support more weight, for US$2.5 million from the City of London. The marked stones were shipped to Lake Havasu City and reassembled for another US$7 million. The construction took three years to complete.

Since then London Bridge has become a huge tourist attraction for the city and if Wikipedia is to be trusted… which on this particular fact I don’t think it might be… It is the second biggest tourist attraction in the whole of Arizona… Only second to the Grand Canyon.

I guess that his plan was a success. Good on you Mr McCulloch. I’m proud of you.