The old nursery rhyme about London Bridge falling down was correct as Mr Sharkey reminded me yesterday.The first London Bridge was made by the Romans in 43AD. That and subsequent bridges were destroyed by invaders and fire.
The 1831 London Bridge featured bridge lamps fashioned from melted down cannons that belonged to Napoleon's Army.
After the Second World War, bridge traffic increased to the point that the bridge did start crumbling with bits falling into the Thames.
England's government was in dire financial straits so it put the bridge up for sale. It needed someone willing to buy the crumbling heirloom and remove it for them.
Luckily, Robert McCulloch, founder of Lake Havasu City in Arizona and chairman of McCulloch Oil Corp offered $2,460,000 which was enough to do a deal.
The bridge was dismantled and each stone numbered. Everything was shipped the ten thousand miles to Long Beach California and then trucked to Lake Havasu City.
Reconstruction began in 1968 and the new bridge opened on October 10, 1971.
This London Bridge crosses a narrow boating channel that connects with Thompson Bay on the Arizona side of Lake Havasu.
See, some nursery rhymes are true...
