Tower Bridge and the London Bridge that went to Arizona: the back story

About Tower Bridge and the London Bridge that went to Arizona: the back story

By the ULTIMATE London Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Tower Bridge opened in 1894 and still lifts for tall ships. Its older neighbour upstream had a stranger fate: in 1968 John Rennie’s London Bridge was sold, taken apart stone by stone and rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

A bridge that opens

By the late 19th century the East End was growing fast and needed a crossing below London Bridge, but any new bridge had to let ships through to the wharves of the Pool of London. The answer, unveiled in 1884, was a bascule bridge designed by the City Architect Sir Horace Jones with the engineer John Wolfe Barry: two great leaves that lift to open the river, between towers dressed in Gothic stone to sit in harmony with the Tower of London beside them.

Work began on 22 April 1886. Jones died early in the build and Barry saw it through, and on 30 June 1894 the Prince of Wales opened Tower Bridge on behalf of Queen Victoria. It still lifts for tall ships today, and the lift times are published on the bridge’s own website.

Each granite block was numbered before it left London, so the bridge could be put back together in the right order on the far side of the world.

Inside Tower Bridge

The Tower Bridge exhibition takes you up to the high-level walkways between the towers, where glass floors look straight down onto the road and the river, and then into the Victorian engine rooms that once powered the bascules. Time your visit with a lift and you can watch the road rise beneath your feet.

Old London Bridge

There has been a bridge near London Bridge since the Romans founded Londinium beside it. The one that went to America was the work of John Rennie the Elder, finished after his death by his son, John Rennie the Younger, and opened on 1 August 1831: five elegant granite arches that carried the traffic of Victorian London for well over a century.

By the early 1960s it was no longer strong enough for modern traffic, and the City of London decided to replace it. Rather than demolish Rennie’s bridge, the City put it up for sale.

Sold to Arizona

In April 1968 it was bought by Robert P. McCulloch, the American entrepreneur who in 1964 had founded Lake Havasu City, a new town on the shore of Lake Havasu in the Arizona desert. He paid $2.46 million. Each block of the outer granite was numbered and catalogued, shipped through the Panama Canal to Long Beach in California, and taken on by truck to Arizona.

The foundation stone was laid again on 23 September 1968 by the Lord Mayor of London. The new bridge has a reinforced concrete core faced with the original 1830s stonework, and it was rededicated on 10 October 1971. It now crosses the Bridgewater Channel, a canal dug beneath it after it was finished, and it has become the heart of the town.

The Tower Bridge myth

A story has long been told that McCulloch thought he was buying Tower Bridge. It makes a good tale, but it is a myth: McCulloch and the City of London official who arranged the sale both firmly denied it. He knew exactly which bridge he was buying, and he used it, very successfully, to bring visitors to his new town.

Back on the Thames, the present London Bridge, a sleek concrete crossing, opened in 1973 on the site of Rennie’s bridge.

Our advice: walk the South Bank from London Bridge to Tower Bridge late in the afternoon, cross as the lights come on, and check the lift times before you go if you want to see the bascules open.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Tower Bridge and the London Bridge that went to Arizona: the back story before you go.