On April 18, 1968, the old London Bridge, then in a dangerously dilapidated state, was sold to an American company. It was dismantled stone by stone, shipped across the Atlantic, and reassembled in the middle of the Arizona desert.
The mastermind behind this extraordinary move was Missouri oilman Robert McCulloch, who paid a staggering $9.5 million for the bridge — and had a bold vision: he rebuilt it in Lake Havasu City, a town he had founded himself, in a place where there wasn’t even a river.
In 1971, the London Bridge was officially reopened with much fanfare. The ceremony caused a media sensation, drawing a flood of tourists to Lake Havasu City — and, crucially, a surge of land buyers. Within just a few years, McCulloch had fully recouped his investment.
To this day, the London Bridge remains the largest antique ever sold — and one of the most audacious real estate marketing moves in history.