Travels With Connie #56 London Bridge
Sometimes I know exactly where I am going. In that case it’s easy, pick a route and go.
More often I have an idea where I’d like to end up, and generally speaking a direction to go.
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Once in a while I just follow the front wheel and see where it takes me.
Yep, that is the London Bridge that was replaced by the city of London in 1968. It spans a small channel in the Colorado River.
A guy named Mac McCulloch bought 6000 acres from the Federal Government with a dream of developing his own city. Land development in Arizona is quite common, and goes on today.
The town was chartered in 1963 as the Lake Havasu Irrigation District. In 1968 McCulloch bought the bridge for 2.5 million dollars from the city of London and paid another 7.5 million for dismantling, shipping and reinstallation.
Turned out to be one heck of a bargain. The bridge was mounted to modern pilings and dedicated in 1971. It has since become the second most popular tourist destination in the state behind the Grand Canyon.
The bridge that you see here was completed (in London) in 1831. By 1967 it needed to be replaced, and the rest is history.
The bridge had some additional engineering during the move and reconstruction and handles the limited traffic across it today.s
The area around the bridge is filled with. 'tourist shops' as you might imagine. Restaurants are also very popular in the area. Fish and chips anyone?
Lake Havasu has become a very popular tourist destination for not only the bridge but for the water sports and available night life. It is incredibly popular with 'spring breakers' and was the location for one of the original 'Girls Gone Wild' videos.
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All in all, the bridge and the town are wildly successful. A tribute to one man's vision for something brand new
Thanks for coming along for the ride.
All words and photographs in this post are mine. For better or worse
You want some real motorcycle travel? Check out Velimir. That’s some kind of motorcycle writing.
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That's a fascinating piece of history I had no idea about! Awesome. And yes, I'd love me some Fish and Chips <3
I was fed, so didn't try any Fish and Chips this trip. But I have many times.
The London Bridge gives a whole new meaning to the saying, one mans trash is another mans treasure. I had no idea that the London Bridge was no longer in London and I guess it hasn't been for a long time from what you have said here.
I wonder where it will end up next, North Korea maybe?
I have been led to believe that they built a new bridge to replace this one. Haven't seen it, but it says so on the innerwebs, so it must be true.
Little Rocket Man would have to make a big offer, I think. The city would probably take umbrage at losing their bridge.
Yea, I think you are correct, nothing as ever been put on the internet that wasn't true, I am pretty dang sure of that myself.
Nice London bridge photography. Thanks sir.
It's a cool place. Thank you.
Great story and photos @bigtom13! I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you.
It's a pretty cool tourist place. That didn't exist at all until 1963.
Cool history)
Thank you.
Beautiful photography. I appreciate you. Thanks for sharing photos with us. @bigtom13
Thanks! I enjoy the sharing as much as the being there.
I have heard the story of the bridge but not sure I ever saw photos of it such an interesting post and I would love to visit there sometime and see it for myself
Thank you. It really is a great place to visit, is really good with 'tourists'. I'll bet you could find some photo ops there ;)
@bigtom13 It sure is a place i would love to visit sometime :)
Wow, fantastic bridge! Love it!
Glad you liked it. Thank you.
You underline this post with a good story. I love that. Thank you. 💯
Thank you very much. I really do appreciate that...
Looks like a beautiful spot. I love how clean everything is. Do they rent those boats out or are they there for guided tours? Great pictures my friend.
It's just like Alice's Restaurant at Havasu. You can rent any type of watercraft you can imagine. :) There are also tours of the bridge from land and water.