LONDON BRIDGE
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When I moved to Lake Havasu City the island was a peninsula and the London Bridge was a bunch of granite blocks with numbers on them laying in the desert. Watching the bridge being reconstructed on dry land was kind of strange, but when you're 14 you didn't really concern yourself too much with what the crazy adults were doing.
Our resident London Bridge expert was Elrose Dussault, from History of The London Bridge and Lake Havasu City written by Elrose in 1987, here are some excerpts:
The first bridge, which was built by Romans in 43 A.D., was a temporary pontoon bridge. Soon after this, the first London Bridge was built. The next record of a London Bridge is 984 when a woman, who was thought to be a witch, was drowned at London Bridge. In 1014, Olaf pulled the bridge down by tying his ship to piers and rowing off at full speed. In 1176, the first stone bridge was built under the direction of Peter Colechurch. It took 33 years to build. This bridge stood for 600 years. In 1824 the present London Bridge was built under John Rennie. In 1971, London Bridge was reconstructed under the direction of Robert Beresford in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
In 1962 it was discovered that the London Bridge was falling down, sinking into the Thames because it was not adequate for the increase in traffic. Robert McCulloch learned that the British Government was putting the bridge up for sale. He submitted the winning bid for $2,460,000. Plans were made to move and reconstruct the bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Each piece was marked with four numbers. The first indicated which span, the second noted which row of stones, and the last two numbers indicated which position in that row. It was discovered, while dismantling the bridge, that there were code numbers on each stone when it was originally built: Rennie must have used the same system when the sections left the quarries.
Reconstructing the bridge in Lake Havasu City was done in the same manner as the Egyptians built the pyramids. Sand mounds beneath each arch were carefully formed to the profile of the original bridge arches, serving the same function as molds. When work was completed, the sand was removed. A one-mile channel was dredged and water was diverted from the lake, under the bridge, then back out into the lake.
The bridge was shipped by boat 10,000 miles to Long Beach, California. From there it was trucked to Lake Havasu City, where it was stored in a seven-acre fenced storage compound. On September 23, 1968, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Gilbert Inglefield, laid the corner stone. Robert Beresford, a civil engineer from Nottingham, England was in charge of the reconstruction of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu.
The London Bridge was completed and dedicated on October 10, 1971.
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There's a lot more about the history of the London Bridge in Elrose's pamphlet, which are available at the Lake Havasu Museum of History, located in the London Bridge Shopping Plaza which sits between Hwy 95 and London Bridge Road, just across the street from the Hampton Inn. Be sure to stop in and visit the museum while you're here or if you haven't been there in awhile, they have some excellent exhibits from the early days of the area when native Americans lived along the river, the steamboats that traveled the river, and the early days of Lake Havasu City featuring tons of old photographs, video, audio, and of course everything there is to know about the London Bridge.
Also, if you didn't notice this on the Activities/Tours page, The London Bridge Historical Ghost Walk is Lake Havasu City's spookiest tour, a spine-chilling night awaits you in the company of masterful story teller Sir Gothic Graves.
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(click on images to enlarge)
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(click on images to enlarge)
Traffic over Thames
Robert Beresford
Remember Up With People?
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(click on images to enlarge)
Dredging the channel
The first water under the London Bridge
Placing the seawall
From the Queen Mary ship in Long Beach
Sir Desmond Heap,
controller and city solicitor to the Corporation of London
controller and city solicitor to the Corporation of London
The construction crew
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Each year the swallows come and nest on the London Bridge (click image to enlarge)
After the bridge was built we used to ride our horses over it all the time in the early/mid 70's, not much traffic then! We had our pictures taken by tourists every time we did. One time a school teacher was riding with us, Bob Bland, and he rode a white horse (Waniki) in an English saddle with the tall English boots, the whole bit. He used to tease the tourists by yelling in an English accent "Have you seen the hounds? We've lost the hounds!" We were always a big hit.
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