London Bridge Was Actually Sold and Moved to Arizona
In 1968, entrepreneur Robert McCulloch bought the original London Bridge for $2.4 million and had it dismantled, shipped, and rebuilt in the Arizona desert.
About this fact
The famous nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is falling down' became reality in 1968, but not in the way anyone expected. The Victorian-era London Bridge, built in 1831, was actually sinking into the Thames due to increased traffic and its own weight. Rather than demolish it, the City of London decided to sell it. American entrepreneur Robert McCulloch, who was developing Lake Havasu City in Arizona, bought the bridge for $2.4 million (about $20 million today). The bridge was carefully dismantled stone by stone, with each piece numbered and cataloged. All 10,276 tons of granite were shipped to California and trucked to Arizona. It was then reconstructed over a specially dredged channel in Lake Havasu. The project took three years and opened in 1971. Today, it's Arizona's second-biggest tourist attraction after the Grand Canyon.