London Bridge, Rebuilt in Arizona
The 1830s London Bridge now stands in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It is not a replica: its stone facing came from the original bridge, which crossed the River Thames in London. The bridge was dismantled, shipped across the Atlantic, and rebuilt in the desert.
Why the Bridge Left London
By the 1960s, the bridge was struggling with the traffic of a much larger, more motorized city. London replaced it with a newer bridge, and the old structure was put up for sale. American developer Robert McCulloch bought it for his planned community at Lake Havasu, where a landmark could help draw visitors and give the growing town a distinctive center.
A Bridge Taken Apart Stone by Stone
Workers marked and removed the bridge’s facing stones so they could be matched during reconstruction. The stones traveled to Arizona, where they were fitted around a new structural core; the original bridge’s underlying construction was not simply transported intact. The rebuilt crossing opened in 1971, spanning a channel that connects parts of Lake Havasu.
That journey turned a London traffic problem into an Arizona landmark. To walk over the historic bridge today, you have to go not to the Thames, but to the edge of the Colorado River in Lake Havasu City.
