Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It replaced a 19th-century stone-arched bridge, which in turn superseded a 600-year-old stone-built medieval structure. This was preceded by a succession of timber bridges, the first of which was built by the Roman founders of London.
In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London placed the bridge on the market and began to look for potential buyers. Council member Ivan Luckin had put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled: "They all thought I was completely crazy when I suggested we should sell London Bridge when it needed replacing." On 18 April 1968, Rennie's bridge was purchased by the Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCullochof McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridgewas denied by Luckin in a newspaper interview.[35] As the bridge was taken apart, each piece was meticulously numbered. The blocks were then shipped via the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. The bridge was reconstructed by Sundt Construction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and re-dedicated on 10 October 1971. The reconstruction of Rennie's London Bridge spans the Bridgewater Channel canal that leads from the Uptown area of Lake Havasu City and follows McCulloch Boulevard onto an island that has yet to be named.
The London Bridge that was rebuilt at Lake Havasu City consists of a frame with stones from Rennie's London Bridge used as cladding. The cladding stones used are 150 to 200 millimetres (6 to 8 inches) thick. Some of the stones from the bridge were left behind at Merrivale Quarry at Princetown in Devon.[36]When Merrivale Quarry was abandoned and flooded in 2003, some of the remaining stones were sold in an online auction.
The current London Bridge was designed by architect Lord Holford and engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson.[38] It was constructed by contractors John Mowlem and Co from 1967 to 1972,[38] and opened by Queen Elizabeth IIon 17 March 1973.[39] It comprises three spans of prestressed-concrete box girders, a total of 928 feet (283 m) long. The cost of £4 million (£55.5 million in 2018),[33] was met entirely by the Bridge House Estates charity. The current bridge was built in the same location as Rennie's bridge, with the previous bridge remaining in use while the first two girders were constructed upstream and downstream. Traffic was then transferred onto the two new girders, and the previous bridge demolished to allow the final two central girders to be added.
In 1984, the British warship HMS Jupitercollided with London Bridge, causing significant damage to both the ship and the bridge.
On Remembrance Day 2004, several bridges in London were furnished with red lighting as part of a night-time flight along the river by wartime aircraft. London Bridge was the one bridge not subsequently stripped of the illuminations, which are regularly switched on at night.
The current London Bridge is often shown in films, news and documentaries showing the throng of commuters journeying to work into the City from London Bridge Station (south to north). An example of this is actor Hugh Grantcrossing the bridge north to south during the morning rush hour, in the 2002 film About a Boy.
On 11 July 2009, as part of the annual Lord Mayor's charity Appeal and to mark the 800th anniversary of Old London Bridge's completion in the reign of King John, the Lord Mayor and Freemen of the City drove a flock of sheep across the bridge, supposedly by ancient right.
On 3 June 2017, London Bridge was the target of a terrorist attack. Three Islamist terrorists used a rented van to ram pedestrians walking across the bridge, killing three. The attackers then drove their vehicle to nearby Borough Market, where they stabbed multiple people, five of whom died. Armed police arrived on scene and shot the three suspects dead. In addition to the eight innocent people killed in the attack, 48 were injured.[42] As a response, security barriers were installed between the bridge's pavement and road.
