The Bridge That Moved to Arizona

As part of the Round Robin Challenge: Bridge, a couple of people mentioned the famous bridges of London. This reminded me of a bridge John and I took pictures of on our 25th Anniversary trip to Las Vegas back in 2004. We stopped off on the way in Lake Havasu City, current home of London Bridge - well, a London Bridge, anyway.

From Las Vegas 2004 (and Lake Havasu)

Here it is, London Bridge, as it crosses over a bit of Lake Havasu in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Actually it crosses a canal at the edge of the lake. Actually, the lake isn't really a lake, but a man-made reservoir behind a dam. Lake Havasu City is a planned community, home to retirees, water sports and the relocated 1831 London Bridge. Except that it isn't quite the original 1831 bridge over the Thames (built by John Rennie and his son, John Rennie), much less the older bridge that one replaced. This one is a concrete bridge, covered with stones from the 1831 bridge, which were numbered and transported to the new site for reassembly. In many cases the stones were trimmed to fit the new structure, which was built on dry land and completed in 1971. After that, the canal was dredged underneath it.



Unsurprisingly, the tourist area around the bridge looks no more authentically British than its origins suggest.



It's kind of fun, though.



And you can go houseboating on a warm and sunny day, in the dead of winter!



By May, though, the time of year we visited, the tourist season is pretty much over as the temperature rises into the 90s.

Karen