London Bridge is...

... is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona?

I kid you not!

This past weekend the Fiance was sent there on work.  I got to go with, and left the crocheting, the knitting and the work at home.  It was an actual honest to the Gods vacation.  ....though I spent most of Friday zonked out in the bed.

A little history for you first on Lake Havasu (the city's namesake):

Located behind Parker Dam on the Colorado river, a portion of the border of California and Arizona runs through this lake.  Created between 1934 and 1938, the area was previously home to the Mohave and there is evidence of Spanish mining operations on parts of the river here in this area.

Then there's this:

This, is the London Bridge of Lake Havasu Arizona.  This is the real deal.  This bridge formerly spanned the Thames River in London England from 1831 to 1967.  One hundred and thirty six!

 The actual bridge itself, is a normal reinforced concrete, it's the original masonry from the bridge that you see here in the pictures.

A man named Robert P. McCulloch bought the masonry from the City of London.  The blocks were transported to the United States to finish off the bridge in Lake Havasu City, completed in 1971.  The bridge links an Island .... it was a peninsula first actually and they dredged the canal that you can see in the pictures in order to make it an honest bridge.

 I'm not honestly sure if these are the original lamps.  The bridge had several of these and being the uber relaxed dummy that I was this past weekend.... I forgot to check to see the lamps still work.

*facepalm*

The bridge was the last project of engineer, John Rennie and completed by his son.  By 1962, the bridge was unable to keep up with the demands of modern traffic and sold to the city of London.

 Sadly many of the stones lost anywhere from 5.9 inches to 7.9 inches of their original size.

Many of these stones were still much larger than I or my fiance had been expecting.  It took a little over three years to reconstruct the bridge.

Even though the bridge was reduced in mass, the size of it is still impressive.

It was downright awesome being able to walk up to something like this, which is coming on it's 200th birthday in 2031.   Yes, we even sat underneath it and enjoyed a plain snow cone.

The entire trip was frikkin awesome.

Plus there was this little guy:

On the California Side of the Havasu and Colorado river, there are wild burros.

Ain't he cute?!