The Story of the Sale of London - BBC World Service Radio Documentary

In July of 1967 London Bridge was put up for sale. It was sold to an American millionaire who had it dismantled and transported to the USA where it was rebuilt, stone by stone, in Arizona. (Photo: American entrepreneur Robert P McCulloch, standing in front of London Bridge as it is dismantled, ready for transportation back to America, 1968.

n 1967, the Common Council of the City of London placed the bridge on the market and began to look for potential buyers. Council member Ivan Luckin had put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled: "They all thought I was completely crazy when I suggested we should sell London Bridge when it needed replacing." On 18 April 1968, Rennie's bridge was sold to an American. It was purchased by the Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge was denied by Luckin in a newspaper interview.[24] As the bridge was taken apart, each piece was meticulously numbered. The blocks were then shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. The bridge was reconstructed by Sundt Construction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and re-dedicated on 10 October 1971. The reconstruction of Rennie's London Bridge spans the Bridgewater Channel canal that leads from the Uptown area of Lake Havasu City and follows McCulloch Boulevard onto an island that has yet to be named.
The London Bridge that was rebuilt at Lake Havasu City consists of a frame with stones from Rennie's London Bridge used as cladding. The cladding stones used are 150 to 200 millimetres (6 to 8 inches) thick. Some of the stones from the bridge were left behind at Merrivale Quarry at Princetown in Devon.[25] When Merrivale Quarry was abandoned and flooded in 2003, some of the remaining stones were sold in an online auction.

ohn Rennie FRSE FRS (7 June 1761 – 4 October 1821) was a Scottish civil engineer who designed many bridges, canals, and docks.

Robert Paxton McCulloch (May 11, 1911 – February 25, 1977) was an American Missourian entrepreneur most notable for McCulloch chainsaws and purchasing the old London Bridge and moving it to one of the cities he founded, Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

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