WHY was the London Bridge moved to Lake Havasu, Arizona?

[Music] 50 years ago the london bridge was moved over 5 000 miles from london england to the desert of arizona [Music] today we're gonna fly over it and learn more about how and why this unique event happened [Music] the london bridge which is now located in lake havasu arizona has become somewhat of a pop culture phenomenon the peak of which might just be a 1980s david hasselhoff film where jack the ripper comes back to terrorize the good people of lake havasu jack the ripper is live and he's right here in haverson but the story of why and how this massive bridge was moved halfway across the world is immensely more interesting than that hasselhoff movie by the way guys i've finally created some awesome wolf corn merchandise like this hat and this t-shirt there's a bunch of cool designs if you're interested go check out my youtube store on my channel page or you can click the link in the description below [Music] over time there have been several versions of the london bridge built going all the way back to the 13th century the new london bridge as it's sometimes referred was designed by sir john rennie and built in 1831 for a while it was the busiest and most congested point in all of london with over 8 000 people crossing it every hour over time the bridge slowly started sinking into the river thames and in 1967 it was finally closed and replaced with the current day london bridge the city of london saw an opportunity and decided to sell the older london bridge to the highest bidder but who would be interested in buying a 130 year old bridge that's where robert mcculloch enters the story in the 1960s mcculloch was looking to attract prospective buyers of the land that he owned out in the middle of the arizona desert alongside lake havasu but before we go any further you need to know more about lake havasu and how it came to be this is the parker dam in 1934 it was built on the colorado river which in turn created lake havasu the word havasu comes from a native american word meaning blue green water while parker dam was able to generate hydroelectric power the main purpose was to create lake havasu which in turn became the water source for the newly constructed colorado river aqueduct which would deliver water 240 miles to support the fast-growing population of southern california [Music] alongside the newly formed lake havasu was a peninsula called pittsburgh point this piece of land became one of seven emergency landing sites for b-17 bombers that trained in the area during world war ii the army designated this point as site-6 because of its popularity amongst pilots as a good place to have an emergency and go fishing the army converted site-6 into a rest and relaxation camp for its personnel fast forward to 1958 robert mcculloch was an entrepreneur who made his fortune selling chainsaws he was flying over the area looking for a place to set up a testing facility for a new outboard motor that he was developing site six looked like the perfect location so he bought the land and set up shop there in 1963 mcculloch envisioned the city of lake havasu and saw a great business opportunity he then purchased a total of 26 square miles of surrounding desert from the state of arizona for under 75 dollars per acre to help design the city he brought in the former lead developer for disneyland a man named cv wood together mcculloch and wood came up with a plan to bring their city to life [Music] at this point mcculloch had the land and the city layout all he needed was to get some buyers to purchase his land and populate his city he did this by getting several lockheed constellation aircraft to fly in potential buyers from around the country focusing on cold weather cities such as new york detroit and chicago between 1964 and 1978 he organized over 2 700 flights and brought in 000 prospective buyers lake havasu city is a community you should look into right now and you can with no cost to you you will fly free to lake havasu city aboard a giant four engine airliner from mcculloch's fleet with electrojet flagships you'll enjoy fine meals and accommodations and you'll cruise beautiful lake havasu it can be the most rewarding trip of your life [Music] and that brings us to 1968. at the same time that robert mcculloch was looking for an attraction for his growing city the city of london was looking to auction off his bridge to the highest bidder [Music] mcculloch's offer of 2.4 million dollars was accepted and the bridge was now his he just needed to find a way to get it to lake havasu the 950 foot long 33 000 ton structure was carefully labeled and dismantled block by block packed up and shipped through the panama canal to long beach california where it was then trucked the final 300 miles to lake havasu now bridges are normally built over rivers to connect one piece of land to another that's kind of the reason for existing right but at lake havasu there was no river to cross so mcculloch decided to build one in the meantime the london bridge was being reconstructed piece by piece over the desert floor using the dirt as a platform when the main bridge structure was finished the dirt was removed revealing a bridge built over dry land over 2 million cubic yards of earth was then moved to create the river which would then flow under the london bridge turning pittsburgh point into an island after three years of deconstruction moving and rebuilding the bridge was opened in 1971 in an elaborate ceremony since then mcculloch's gamble paid off and the land sales in lake havasu increased significantly the city's population went from just a few hundred in the 1960s to over 55 000 people today the bridge has since become the second most popular attraction in arizona behind the grand canyon with over one million annual visitors [Music] [Music] so and while robert mcculloch and cv wood weren't around long enough to see the full extent of their vision come true their memory is alive and well in the city of lake havasu [Music] [Applause] [Music] i want to give a special shout out to the lake havasu museum of history they gave me a lot of archival footage which helped make this video possible anytime you're in lake havasu don't forget to swing by and give them a visit well i hope you guys like this video please don't forget to hit that like button it really helps out my youtube channel and if you haven't subscribed yet please hit this little wooflecorn logo down there in the corner and that way you'll know next time i make a video [Music] thanks again for watching it's your viewership and support that keep this channel going head over to my patreon channel if you want to chat and get access to exclusive content until then i'll see you guys on the next adventure [Music] you

Channel: Wolficorn

Views: 17,399

Keywords: london bridge, lake havasu, arizona, desert, london bridge is falling down, wolficorn, grumman tiger, history, educational, colorado river, colorado river aqueduct, parker dam, robert mcculloch, airplanes, flying video, general aviation, london bridge song, mavic air 2, small airplane, london bridge nursery rhyme

Id: XrMBo_0zWAU

Length: 9min 43sec (583 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/oooohbarracuda]

Great video!

[u/simpathyforthedevil]

You did an amazing job!!!!! What a great video.

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