Tales from the Morgue: London Bridge is all built up

Londoners Would Be Amazed

Bridge Is Now Desert Rarity

By Special Correspondent

LAKE HAVASU CITY — If ghosts really exist, those of an Arizona Indian chief and a British bridge designer must be having a right jolly time about now. The chief would be the leader of the Chemehuevis of 140 years ago. They were the first real estate users of Lake Havasu City. The bridge designer would be Sir John Rennie. He designed London Bridge, which was begun in 1823 and was dedicated in 1831. The bridge joining stones have been transported to the edge of the Colorado River at Lake Havasu City.

Sir John died in 1821 before the first of the London Bridge stones could be laid. But London Bridge was only one of this Scottish bridge builder’s monuments. Waterloo Bridge was another. The London Bridge attributed to Sir John’s genius replaced a bridge built in 1205.

It would be hard telling whose ghost would be the more amused. Both would recognize a $7 million publicity stunt when they found one, especially of it involved a bridge built over dry land. London Bridge will make an island out of a good peninsula when the waters of the Colorado are diverted under it.

There is even a pub nearby that is owned by the city of London. The ghost of Rennie would undoubtedly use the pub for a warm, mild ale. The chief would, in the hundred-plus heat, probably prefer his fire water cool. Both could sit by the waters of Lake Havasu, when the channel under the bridge was opened, and find things in common.

They would both be anticipating the formal reopening of the bridge on Oct. 9 and 10. With typical British restraint, Sir Peter Studd, London lord mayor, in full ceremonial regalia will be there, as well as Arizona’s Gov. Jack Williams.

A costume contest will be held for local residents, with $7,000 in prizes. Indian boat races, fireworks, and a balloon ascension, as there was in 1831 when the bridge was dedicated in London, also will be held.

Dinner for 2,000 people will be served on the bridge. Parachutists with American and British flags will jump from over the bridge.

Tucson is involved because the concrete core of the rebuilt bridge was erected by the M.M. Sunday Construction Co. The granite facing stones were sold by the British to the McCulloch Corp., developer of Lake Havasu City, for $2,460,000. Complete with bob scars, they give the structure almost the exact appearance it had in London until three years ago, when it was, as the song says, falling down.

The nursery rhyme actually refers to an earlier bridge in British history that Scandinavian raiders pulled down. The Lake Havasu City model was settling into the ooze of the Thames.

A new London Bridge is nearly completed in England. The Arizona acquisition will serve as the centerpiece for Robert P. McCulloch’s operations at Lake Havasu City. He hopes it will give transcontinental tourists the impetus to make a detour and visit the bridge.

Some of the Chemehuevi Indians live on a reservation on the California side of the Colorado River.

State’s London Bridge Opens

LAKE HAVASU CITY (AP) — Shorter and humpier than when it spanned the Thames River, the London Bridge was formally restored to service in the Arizona desert Sunday.

The lord mayor of London, Sir Peter Studd, and Arizona Gov. Jack Williams hailed the reconstructed 140-year-old bridge as a symbol of friendship between England and the United States.

“There’s not a Londoner who isn’t delighted to have the bridge in its new home,” said the lord mayor, who wore his heavy ceremonial robes in the 90-degree heat.

Five skywriting planes, flying in formation, welcomed the thousands in the stands erected at one end of the bridge, overlooking the lake.

The clear sky because a mass of color when the speeches ended.

A 70-foot hot air balloon ascended as 30,000 multicolored balloons and 3,000 white pigeons were released. A dozen skydivers floated down under brilliantly-colored parachutes.

The history of the bridge was depicted in floats during a parade which included bands, cowboys, Indians and Boy Scouts.

The dedication climaxed two days which included canoe and water ski races, fireworks, stunt flying and a black-tie banquet for 700 which ended early Sunday morning.

The town of 8,000 developed by the McCulloch Corp., on Lake Havasu on the Arizona-California line, joined in the celebration. Residents dressed in Elizabethan costumes and some stores changed their names. Lake Havasu Pharmacy became the “London Apothecary.”

Normal Hall, a director of the City of London Corp., which sold the bridge to McCulloch for $2.4 million, said he was pleased to see it put to use. But, he noted changes in its appearance.

“It has a little higher arch in the center, it’s hamper,” Hall said. “They left off about 58 feet at one end which was an overpass for a street on the Surrey side.

“It already looks cleaner in the Arizona sun and I understand that you have sandstorms that might actually clean it more,” Hall said.

Hall noted that another Thames River bridge — Waterloo Bridge — was dismantled in 1938, “and is still in a junkyard waiting for a buyer.”

The five-arch, 952-foot London bridge, was reassembled over a new concrete superstructure on the neck of a peninsula extending into the lake. Then a channel was dug beneath it.

The bridge becomes a part of the town’s main thoroughfare, leading to an airport.