<story><title>Old London Bridge</title><url>https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenwood/history-stories-kenwood/old-london-bridge/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CAPSLOCKSSTUCK</author><text>&amp;gt; The 19th-century London Bridge (famously referred to in TS Eliot’s The Waste Land) survived for little more than a century before it in turn was replaced, in the 1970s, by the present bridge. The 19th-century bridge was sold and re-erected in Arizona.&lt;p&gt;Wait, so someone literally got sold a bridge?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eschulz</author><text>Yes, the British government was happy to sell it to Arizona businessman and developer Robert McCulloch. He had to actually make a slight deviation of the Colorado River in order for it to go under the bridge in its new location. To accomplish that feat he hired some Texas lawyers who personally knew President Johnson, and they all went to the White House to convince Johnson to approve the adjustment to the river course.&lt;p&gt;Johnson at first didn&amp;#x27;t want to do it, he said it wouldn&amp;#x27;t be right to deviate a major river for a real estate developer&amp;#x27;s project. One of the lawyers said that he wouldn&amp;#x27;t have to make such exceptions for anyone&amp;#x27;s sake, just for anytime that an American bought London Bridge and brought it to the US. Johnson was convinced and McCulloch got his way.</text></comment>
<story><title>Old London Bridge</title><url>https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenwood/history-stories-kenwood/old-london-bridge/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CAPSLOCKSSTUCK</author><text>&amp;gt; The 19th-century London Bridge (famously referred to in TS Eliot’s The Waste Land) survived for little more than a century before it in turn was replaced, in the 1970s, by the present bridge. The 19th-century bridge was sold and re-erected in Arizona.&lt;p&gt;Wait, so someone literally got sold a bridge?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>delichon</author><text>His name was Robert McCulloch.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_City)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_Cit...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Growing up in the &amp;#x27;70s we used to boat camp on the Arizona shore of Lake Havasu, and after days in the bush we&amp;#x27;d boat to the closest civilization, this little tourist town, and be tourists and gape at the bridge, then go back to  camping. Good times.</text></comment>