Why London Bridge Is a Long Way From Home

By | December 26, 2022

View of London Bridge, London (Photo by: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

From the name, it is easy to assume that London Bridge, the one we all sang about in that children’s ditty, is in London, England, but that is not where you would find the bridge today. For the first 130 years of the structure’s history, it did sit in jolly ol’ England where it spanned the Thames. Fate is a funny thing, though. Through a series of unexpected events, London Bridge is now far, far from its original home … in Arizona! Here’s how it all went down.

London Bridge

In the history of London, there have been several bridges that have been called London Bridge. Wooden bridges may have spanned the River Thames at the site of a natural ford prior to the arrival of the Romans, but it was the Romans who brought their superior engineering and stonework techniques with them to Britannia. They constructed a stone bridge as part of their road-building initiative. That stone bridge stood strong for centuries before falling into disrepair.

Alfred the Great ordered the construction of another bridge in the year 878 during his redevelopment of the area. There are written accounts of the bridge being damaged or destroyed, then rebuilt, over and over again. King John’s London Bridge building project was completed in the year 1209 and it stood until 1831. That’s when our story begins.

Aerial views of the London Bridge on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022 in Lake Havasu City, AZ. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The 1831 London Bridge

The London Bridge that was built in 1831 – the one that would eventually end up in Arizona – was designed by engineer John Rennie. The granite structure was 928 feet in length and 49 feet wide, but it lacked the old-world charm of the older bridge. Londoners joked that the bridge was an ugly eye sore. When the bridge was finally completed, it was dedicated in a lavish opening banquet that was held on August 1, 1831. In attendance was King William IV and Queen Adelaide.

London Bridge became the busiest crossing point in London, especially by the 1930s through 1950s. During that time, roughly 900 cars and about 8,000 pedestrians crossed the bridge every hour. Traffic increased from there, so much so that the bridge suffered under the weight of it all. By the early 1960s, it was clear that London Bridge was sinking into the Thames at different rates in different spots. The bridge would need to be replaced with a new bridge that was built for vehicular traffic.

A Crazy Idea

The town council of London met to discuss demolition of the old bridge and the construction of a new one, but one of the council members, Ivan Luckin, presented an alternate plan. Luckin believed that London could sell its iconic London Bridge and use the money to offset the cost of a new bridge. But who would want to buy London Bridge? Luckin believed that if there was a buy for the bridge, that buyer was probably American. In 1968, he traveled to the U.S. to peddle the world’s largest antique.

Eccentric Millionaire Robert McCulloch

Robert McCulloch was a millionaire businessman from Missouri who made his riches selling motors, chainsaws, and oil. An eccentric character who once credited his success to “booze and broads”, McCulloch was in the midst of making his own crazy idea a reality. In 1953, he bought thousands of acres in Arizona near Lake Havasu, which was created when the Colorado River was dammed. He wanted to make a housing community and tourist attraction that combined the region’s natural beauty with luxury homes and hotels. He was having a bit of trouble attracting visitors, though. He needed something unique that would bring people in and create a buzz.

A Million Dollar Purchase

One of Robert McCulloch’s business associates heard about Ivan Luckin and the London Bridge. He discussed it with McCulloch who thought that bringing the historic British bridge to Arizona and making it the centerpiece of his housing community was a brilliant idea. He reached out to Luckin and the two began an intense and lengthy negotiation. There was no precedent for this unique transaction, so they were in uncharted territory. McCulloch found out that London had received a quote of $1.2 million just to demolish London Bridge, so he decided to double that amount and offer $2.4 million. With that, Robert McCulloch bought himself a bridge!

The reconstituted London Bridge has become a popular tourist attraction in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

Getting From Point A to Point B

Moving a 900-foot granite bridge across the pond was no easy feat. Each granite brick was dismantled, labeled, and packed in a crate. The crates were loaded on a freighter ship that sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Panama Canal, and to the docks at Long Beach, California. From there, the crates were transported across the desert on a fleet of trucks to finally arrive at London Bridge’s new home in Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Prior to the bridge’s arrival, construction crews erected a steel-reinforced framework that was strong enough to handle the weight of modern traffic. The granite blocks were carefully reassembled and affixed to the framework. Lastly, a channel was dug beneath the bridge to turn a peninsula into an island and give London Bridge a waterway to span.

A British-Inspired Grand Opening

After the cost of purchasing London Bridge, dismantling it, shipping it, reassembling it, and dredging the channel, Robert McCulloch paid around $7 million to bring London Bridge to Arizona. The project took about three years and officially concluded on October 10, 1971. To honor the history of the bridge and its new home, McCulloch planned a flamboyant celebration. In addition to fireworks, skydivers, hot air balloons, and live music, McCulloch served the same food that was served at King William IV’s grand opening banquet for London Bridge when it was first opened in 1831.

A “Supergimmick”

Robert McCulloch was quite open about the fact that he bought London Bridge as a marketing gimmick. He hoped it would generate interest in his housing and tourism community and would bring visitors to Arizona. It was “quite mad”, as the British press said, but it seemed to have worked. More and more people made Lake Havasu, Arizona, their new home and many others vacationed there. For a lot of Americans, it was the only chance they would ever have of seeing a true London landmark in person.