The Bridges of Havasu

The subject of bridges was much in my mind when I was planning that portion of the Mohave County story which has to do with Lake Havasu. After all, we are quite proud of the massive four-lane crossing of upper Lake Havasu at Topock (see aerial view, color section) and of the brand-new 1,125foot span near Parker Dam that will provide southerly access on Arizona 95 to Lake Havasu City. However, I did not suspect that a third bridge at Havasu would completely overshadow these impressive new structures. It took historic London Bridge to do the trick, but overshadow them it has as the world's press has taken up the exciting story that London Bridge is coming to Arizona!

The present London Bridge, fourth in a series bearing that name since the First Century A.D., is now being dismantled, stone by stone, and will be transported by ship and truck to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. There it will be carefully and accurately reassembled to bridge a new channel of Lake Havasu, providing access from the mainland to a large island housing the airport, marina, and other attractions to be constructed there.

News of purchase of London Bridge for $2,460,000 by McCulloch Oil Corporation of California was released simultaneously on April 18, 1968, at news conferences held in London, New York, and Phoenix. Dry, land-locked Arizona

The Bridges

suddenly gained new prominence as final site of an historic structure that has felt the trod of the great and near-great since its dedication on August 1, 1831.

No other single structure in the world is so widely known, as countless generations of children have chanted the nursery rhyme that begins, "London Bridge is falling down." The London Bridge of the nursery rhyme was probably the second bridge of this name, a wooden span described during the reign of King Edgar (959-975 A.D.) as "so broad that two wagons could pass on the center span."

That bridge was destroyed in 1014 by Olaf the Norwegian, who tied his Viking longships to the piers of the bridge and then destroyed the span. The feat was featured prominently in a Scandinavian saga, the Haemskringla, which carries the lines that evolved into the nursery rhyme: "London Bridge is broken down, "Gold is won and bright renown."

In 1176, Peter de Colechurch, chantry priest of the Church of St. Mary's, directed construction of the most durable of the London Bridges, a span on nineteen piers that was one

of Havasu

of the wonders of the medieval world. It required thirty years in the building and lasted for six hundred years. Londoners were so impressed with Colechurch's work that they composed their own personal tribute to the bridge, corrupting the Haemskringla with their own:

A statement by the Corporation of the City of London gives the background of this development, and the Corpora tion's hopes for future utilization of the bridge: "The Corporation, having decided that it is necessary to demolish the present London Bridge and to build a new London Bridge, resolved to offer for sale the stonework of the existing bridge elevations in a way which would allow its re-use as facings to a new bridge of similar shape and size so that the existing London Bridge which is an outstanding example of the 19th Century skill in masonry design and construction is not lost to future generations."

The 1,005-foot bridge consists of five elliptical arches built of granite quarried at Aberdeen, Devon, and Cornwall. The 10,000 tons of stones ranging in weight from one-half ton to five tons are stored in a five-acre area of the Surrey Commercial Docks, where the blocks will be picked up by the pur chaser and shipped to Long Beach, California, for truck shipment to Lake Havasu City. The blocks are numbered for engineering reference in the reconstruction. The foundation stone will be laid during the fall of 1968, and dedication of the bridge and new waterway is scheduled for the spring of 1971. Robert P. McCulloch, Sr., chairman of the board of McCulloch Oil Corporation, stated that London Bridge would be reconstructed "with dignity and respect, following the original drawings of the Scottish architect, John Rennie, and in the form that it has been known to generations of Londoners and world travelers."

London Bridge will be a working bridge in its new location, carrying a steady stream of traffic between major areas of this new city. Buildings in the British style of architecture will be constructed near the bridge to add emphasis to the bridge's presence and to further point up our English heritage. Welcome to London Bridge a surprising addition to the bridges of Havasu!