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GRADS
02-01-2014, 10:03 AM
Check it out. Sometime between 68-71. I stole it off of 28Elim's facebook page.

32122

hbchgirl
02-01-2014, 10:18 AM
Wow, that's cool! 👍NRI used to ski through the channel and under the bridge behind his parents' Stevens flat with a 348ci Chevy with tri-carbs in the mid-70s.

Eli
02-01-2014, 10:31 AM
That's cool!


Sent from my Bat Cave

Stainless
02-01-2014, 11:16 AM
MM Sundt constructed it, correct?


CH3NO2

gn7
02-01-2014, 11:25 AM
Wow, that's cool! ��NRI used to ski through the channel and under the bridge behind his parents' Stevens flat with a 348ci Chevy with tri-carbs in the mid-70s.

Not legally, he didn't!

gn7
02-01-2014, 11:31 AM
MM Sundt constructed it, correct?


CH3NO2

No, John Rennie. Sundt reassembled it in Havasu.

Stainless
02-01-2014, 11:36 AM
no, john rennie. Sundt reassembled it in havasu.

:D


ch3no2

2manymustangs
02-01-2014, 11:48 AM
:D


ch3no2

Ignore him Stainless... He is a specialist at picking fly shit out of pepper... :gas:

Stainless
02-01-2014, 11:51 AM
Ignore him Stainless... He is a specialist at picking fly shit out of pepper... :gas:

That's a nice way of putting it. :D


CH3NO2

RVRKID
02-01-2014, 11:56 AM
I need to find my Grandpas pictures, he would ride his motorcycle, with my sister or brother on the back, up there from Parker and take pictures. They have some with them sitting on the blocks!

RVRKID
02-01-2014, 11:57 AM
Also the Jack in The Box by the bridge use to have pics of the bridge getting built on the walls. Haven't been in there in so long not sure if they are still there.

Slacker
02-01-2014, 12:40 PM
Also the Jack in The Box by the bridge use to have pics of the bridge getting built on the walls. Haven't been in there in so long not sure if they are still there.

We have pics in our office here in Havasu of the bridge being build. Pretty cool to look at.

Slacker
02-01-2014, 12:42 PM
Check it out. Sometime between 68-71. I stole it off of 28Elim's facebook page.

32122

Yeah that would be 1971.

gn7
02-01-2014, 01:30 PM
I remember when the bridge was first completed and it was a huge tourist attraction. More people saw the London Bridge than the Grand Canyon for a few years after it was completed.
Most common miss conception of the tourist was thinking it spanned the "river" like it did in London.

All the blocks were numbered in an upper corner(right I believe) with yellow paint pen. Somewhere I have a picture of the only block I know of that has it upside down in the lower corner. I always wondered if it was done deliberately.

One of the things a lot of people never saw or don't remember is that the bridge was jet black on the under side from the soot from the ships that passed under it for over a 100 years. Ultra violet reflecting off the water finally eliminated the vast majority of it.

Slacker
02-01-2014, 01:54 PM
A lot people think that they used all the granite blocks to reconstruct the bridge but it is really a reinforced concrete bridge with the granite blocks on the outside. So it is not really original as it was in England plus it is about 100 ft. shorter. We have the pics here in our office of all the rebar for the bridge itself being installed.

Stainless
02-01-2014, 02:05 PM
A lot people think that they used all the granite blocks to reconstruct the bridge but it is really a reinforced concrete bridge with the granite blocks on the outside. So it is not really original as it was in England plus it is about 100 ft. shorter. We have the pics here in our office of all the rebar for the bridge itself being installed.

Interesting, so the blocks are just facade?
In the early days didn't you turn directly off 95 to access LB and Island rather than go around the block?


CH3NO2

gn7
02-01-2014, 02:09 PM
A lot people think that they used all the granite blocks to reconstruct the bridge but it is really a reinforced concrete bridge with the granite blocks on the outside. So it is not really original as it was in England plus it is about 100 ft. shorter. We have the pics here in our office of all the rebar for the bridge itself being installed.

I was going to ask all those that have a block of the bridge larger than they can pick up to raise their hand. The vast majority of the bridge is not there.
When the Village first opened, there was a shop that sold chunks of the granite the size of a baseball mounted on a piece of wood with a little brass plate that said it was a piece of the London Bridge with a etched drawing of the bridge. I bet they sold a zillion of those POS to foreign tourists from Europe.
When Walt, of Walt's Kawasaki crashed his Vette thru the guard rail and busted a few spindles, they made the new ones from used granite that is tucked away.
A lot of the granite never left England and still remains there today.

One of the superintendents that worked for Sundt on the "reassembly" built a house in Havasu and used slabs of the granite for the floor of his very large garage. He had it polished and sealed. Its pretty badass.

Stainless
02-01-2014, 02:11 PM
Interesting thread, I didn't know about some of this stuff.


CH3NO2

gn7
02-01-2014, 02:23 PM
Interesting, so the blocks are just facade?
In the early days didn't you turn directly off 95 to access LB and Island rather than go around the block?


CH3NO2
Yep, just a jacket. Actually, the stones you see were always just a cladding when it was originally build. The originally bridge was all granite, but the best pieces were always reserved for the cladding, and they were cut much more precise. Like the pyramids. The stones you see are crude compared to the limestone that was used to cover them. Those were near perfection and polished.
You didn't "exactly" turn straight off the 95 back then, the 95 you see today wasn't there. The highway turned into Lake Havasu Ave and pretty much ended around there. You left and entered town from Parker on McCulloch. I can remember when you needed a stout truck or 4X4 to go to Parker from Site 6.

Also, the 95 back then didn't end up at the 40 where it does today at the Pilot station. It went to Kingman. So if you wanted to go to Needles, you had to go to Kingman first, then back to Needles. The road to Kingman is still out there. Right after the new 95 was built, there was talk of making a dragstrip on the old Kingman road, but it was deemed too dangerous due to being too narrow and too remote. As if going back to Havasu was some sort of live saving measure. Shit, you would already be half way to Kingman, which is where your ass would end up anyway.

ChumpChange
02-01-2014, 02:23 PM
Learn something new everyday. Guess I can go to bed now.

Slacker
02-01-2014, 02:29 PM
Learn something new everyday. Guess I can go to bed now.


Yeah you need a rest,,,lol

Slacker
02-01-2014, 02:33 PM
I was going to ask all those that have a block of the bridge larger than they can pick up to raise their hand. The vast majority of the bridge is not there.
When the Village first opened, there was a shop that sold chunks of the granite the size of a baseball mounted on a piece of wood with a little brass plate that said it was a piece of the London Bridge with a etched drawing of the bridge. I bet they sold a zillion of those POS to foreign tourists from Europe.
When Walt, of Walt's Kawasaki crashed his Vette thru the guard rail and busted a few spindles, they made the new ones from used granite that is tucked away.
A lot of the granite never left England and still remains there today.
One of the superintendents that worked for Sundt on the "reassembly" built a house in Havasu and used slabs of the granite for the floor of his very large garage. He had it polished and sealed. Its pretty badass.


Yeah the City does have Granite block for back-up and see them around town in road mediums.

gn7
02-01-2014, 02:36 PM
Yeah the City does have Granite block for back-up and see them around town in road mediums.

I'd love to know how much that cost Walt's insurance company to have the railing a spindles rebuilt.
There was a truck that crashed thru the railing before that, but the city had to pickup the tab on that one. They crashed clean thru and landed upside down on the bottom of the channel and died. Not sure of the city was able to tap their insurance or if they even had any.
They have a pretty good stash of the stuff out in the desert behind town as well.

28eliminator
02-01-2014, 03:43 PM
Check it out. Sometime between 68-71. I stole it off of 28Elim's facebook page.

32122

Thief... This was top secret shit :D


Sent from somewhere on the water

240Hallett
02-01-2014, 04:08 PM
Cool thread! Some interesting stuff.