TIL In 1968 a man in Arizona bought the London Bridge and had it shipped to the US

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havas…

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Hot Top New Old

The old new London Bridge.

Not the old London bridge, or the current London Bridge, but the bridge that replaced the old London Bridge and the current London Bridge replaced.

Secondhand bridge.

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Also not to be confused with tower bridge which is the one everyone that doesn’t live in London calls London bridge.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridges_in_London

In a sense, I suppose that all of those are London bridges.

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There’s also a common (and completely untrue) urban legend that the guy thought he was buying tower bridge, not London bridge.

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There’s a fun video on the history of old/medium/new London bridge in Jay Foreman’s Unfinished London series:

https://youtu.be/u5CguqywlBk

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old/medium/new

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(disambiguation)

London Bridge, one of several bridges over the River Thames in central London, England
* London Bridge (Roman times)
* London Bridge (Early medieval times)
* London Bridge (1209) (or “Old London Bridge")
* London Bridge (1831) (or “New London Bridge"), the replacement for the 1209 London Bridge (see also Lake Havasu City entry below)
* London Bridge (1973), the present-day London Bridge and replacement for the 1831 bridge

It sounds like there’s the old, the very old, the very very old, the new-but-now-old, and the new.

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I’m not really counting the first two, as they were more temporary wooden bridges. The 1209 London Bridge was the first, proper, permanent bridge across the Thames.

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Was the old old London bridge the cool Tudor one that the burnt down in the nursery rhyme?

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It’s crazy how famous London Bridge is, it’s literally the most boring bridge in London. It’s so boring that people think the bridge next to it is London Bridge.

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I mean it was the first ever permanent bridge crossing the Thames in London, and for a long time it was the only bridge in the entirety of east London (despite barely being east of the east-west midpoint of London). London bridge has a lot of interesting history, even if the current one is visually boring.

Jay Foreman has a fun video on the history of London Bridge (https://youtu.be/u5CguqywlBk)

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It’s crazy how famous London Bridge is

I grew up hearing “London Bridge Is Falling Down” in the US. My guess is that there isn’t an analogous nursery rhyme of comparable fame for London’s other bridges.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_Is_Falling_Down

“London Bridge Is Falling Down” (also known as “My Fair Lady” or “London Bridge") is a traditional English nursery rhyme and singing game, which is found in different versions all over the world. It deals with the dilapidation of London Bridge and attempts, realistic or fanciful, to repair it. It may date back to bridge-related rhymes and games of the Late Middle Ages, but the earliest records of the rhyme in English are from the 17th century. The lyrics were first printed in close to their modern form in the mid-18th century and became popular, particularly in Britain and the United States, during the 19th century.

The rhyme is often used in a children’s singing game, which exists in a wide variety of forms, with additional verses. Most versions are similar to the actions used in the rhyme “Oranges and Lemons”. The most common is that two players hold hands and make an arch with their arms while the others pass through in single file. The “arch” is then lowered at the song’s end to “catch” a player. In the United States, it is common for two teams of those that have been caught to engage in a tug of war.[2]

I remember doing the arch thing.

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The only parts of the “New London Bridge” that made it to Arizona were the exterior masonry. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge.

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I find another part of this story pretty wild- The US ‘rebuild’ was done over dry land, then a canal was dug underneath.

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Canadian approach: build one’s own London, own Thames, and own Blackfriars Bridge:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfriars_Bridge

Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London,_Ontario

London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River and North Thames River, approximately 200 km (120 mi) from both Toronto and Detroit; and about 230 km (140 mi) from Buffalo, New York.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfriars_Street_Bridge

Blackfriars Bridge in London, Ontario, Canada is a wrought iron bowstring arch through truss bridge, crossing the North Thames River. The bridge was constructed in 1875 and carries single-lane vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians from Blackfriars Street to Ridout Street North.

American approach:

Buy the actual bridge in London and ship it over.

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And if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you!

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Deleted by author

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David Xanatos is that you?

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