City celebrates 50th anniversary of London Bridge | news

The founder of Lake Havasu City, Robert McCulloch, bought the stone bridge in 1968 for about 2 million US dollars and had it transported in parts by ship and truck from London across the Atlantic and across the Panama Canal and Los Angeles. This process and reconstruction took three years and led to the inauguration in October 1971.

The City of London decided to replace the bridge because it went under and could not withstand the increased traffic.

In Lake Havasu City, with a population of around 57,000, the bridge that spans a canal between the coast and an island in the river has become a major tourist attraction.

“New York has its Empire State Building, St. Louis has its Gateway Arch and LA has its Hollywood sign. Outside of England there is only one London Bridge in the world and we got it here 50 years ago thanks to the foresight of our founding fathers, ”said Terence Concannon, President and CEO of Go Lake Havasu, to Congress and visitors to the city’s office.

After cutting the ribbon on Friday, the 50th anniversary celebrations will begin this weekend Today’s news announcer reported.

The idea for the festival came from the inauguration of London Bridge in Lake Havasu City in 1971, which also contained a large tent decorated for a formal inauguration dinner, said Melanie Preston of a nonprofit in Lake Havasu City that annually hosts the London Bridge Renaissance Faire organized.

The dedication dinner 50 years ago was itself inspired by the original dedication of the bridge in 1831 in the city that gave the bridge its name.

“It’s going to be a banquet style with rows of tables, candles, flowers, banners and all that,” said Preston.

Hannah Rangel, director of the Lake Havasu Museum of History, said the festival will be an interactive experience for guests and will include modeling some of the costumes that debuted in the original costume competitions in the 1970s and have since been donated to the museum’s collection became .

“Some of the dresses they did in the previous costume competitions are just beautiful,” said Rangel. “So we’re going to talk about it and tell some story. It is very important to us that the story is presented correctly for the city. “