London Bridge Arizona

Moved 5400 miles from London, England, the bridge is now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona near the Colorado River.

Replacing earlier bridges over the Thames, the new London Bridge was completed in 1831.  As time passed, the new bridge began sinking. It had not been designed to withstand 20th century automotive traffic. 

Lake Havasu City founder and entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch placed a winning bid of $2,460,000 in 1968. Each block was meticulously numbered before the bridge was disassembled.  The blocks were then shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona.

Actually, a new modern bridge was constructed with the original blocks used as the surface. We did in fact drive over the bridge looking for a place to park and shoot photos.

London Bridge is Arizona tourism's second-largest attraction after the Grand Canyon, attracting thousands of visitors each year and is a popular stroll for people on romantic getaways in Arizona. It was a mess of traffic on Memorial Day weekend and many people were sporting new sunburns.

There is a London Bridge Parking Lot, a London Bridge Mall, and a London Bridge Resort. For $5, a 45-minute walking tour is available.  Arizona tourists can see the strafing scars from WWII that mar the bridge's granite surface and stroll over sparkling Bridgewater Channel.  The bridge is also a popular hangout for the Arizona boating crowd and you'll see all kinds of boats anchored in the shadow of this piece of history.

Later today we completed our California vacation and returned home. The trip included 2,550 miles of driving.