London Bridge (Lake Havasu City)

London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, is a road bridge assembled in 1968 to 1971 from the exterior granite facing of the 1831 bridge that once carried traffic over the River Thames in London. The original bridge was the last project of the engineer John Rennie and was completed by his son, also John Rennie. By 1962 it could no longer carry the growing traffic, and the City of London sold it in April 1968 to Robert P. McCulloch, the developer who had founded Lake Havasu City. Only the numbered facing stones were shipped to the United States; the Arizona structure is a new reinforced concrete bridge clad in that original masonry. It was built on land between the mainland and Pittsburgh Point, and a channel was dredged beneath it afterwards so that boats now pass under it. Its foundation stone was re-laid in September 1968 and the bridge was rededicated on October 10, 1971. It was built to draw visitors and buyers to McCulloch's planned community and has remained a principal tourist attraction there. A popular rumor that the buyer mistook it for Tower Bridge was denied by both McCulloch and the broker who arranged the sale.