Real history or urban legend?

[Nigglenaggle]

Was singing 'London Bridge is falling down' to DC today and remembered being told that London Bridge had been sold to a rich American, who thought he was buying Tower Bridge, and moved over there brick by brick. Is this actually true or is it an urban legend (or just some random falsehood I have been told ^^)? Does anyone know for sure? I was going to google it but thought I probably wouldn't find reliable info anyway....

Feel free also to add your own examples

Well the bit about him thinking it was Tower Bridge is supposedly not true, but the rest of it's dead on. It's in Arizona now.

yep bought by an American and rebuilt out there

Hmmm maybe I'll pop over and see it one day. I would deny thinking it was Tower Bridge if I were him too...

I always think about this whenever I'm in London!

Who even had the authority to sell London Bridge, and why?

Yes it's out in Arizona the place is called Lake Havasu. We visited it a few years ago while on holiday out there.
The chap who bought it built a resort around it - a sort of oasis in the desert and it's an amazing place to visit. Very popular as a watersports and weekend resort.
The "English" village that was also created as part of the development is quite comical - including a mix of mock tudor facades, a very miniature version of the Trafalgar square lions and there was also an English style pub which we found to be anything but

The bridge was sold by the City of London because it was no longer suitable for the volume of traffic it needed to carry.

Ah I see - probably quite interesting to see what it was like in fact I dont expect many pre-lots of cars artefacts get preserved. So probably he's done history a favour in a slightly unusual manner.

I love going in English pubs abroad. We went in a Scottish one in Russia once which was interesting.... table service by girls in tartan mini skirts with pom poms in their hair. They looked a bit Russian and a bit American and about as far from Scottish as its possible to be!

He knew it was London Bridge not Tower Bridge. I think on QI they said there were pictures if him visiting it and taking measurements

I'd love to go to Arizona and see it! It was the 1831 John Rennie bridge, not the original London Bridge with all the houses on it (the houses were taken down in the 18th century and replaced with stone embrasures, which survive rather randomly in Victoria Park).

The current London Bridge is horrid and dull and concrety, unlike most of the other bridges which are lovely in their different ways.