Relocation of a Bridge Across the Ocean

2017-10-10ByAisinGioroHuayi

Special Focus 2017年8期

By Aisin Gioro Huayi

By Aisin Gioro Huayi

On Lake Havasu in the state of Arizona in the U.S.stands the London Bridge, which was originally built in the U.K. and oddly found a second home abroad.

In the early 1960s, of ficials in England made a troubling discovery: London Bridge was falling down. The bridge over 130 years of age was then unequipped for modern traffic.It was slowly sinking into the River Thames at a rate of one inch every eight years and became a hidden risk for London.

在美国的亚利桑那州哈瓦苏湖上，矗立着一座原建于英国的著名的伦敦桥，这座桥离奇迁移在异国安了家。

二十世纪六十年代早期，英国官员们不安地发现，伦敦桥正在下沉。这座桥龄逾130年的大桥已经不能适应现代交通的需求。它正以每8年1英寸的速度慢慢沉入泰晤士河，成为伦敦市的隐患，于是市政府决定重新建造伦敦桥。

如何处置废弃的伦敦桥，已提到市政府议事日程。

Therefore, the government decided to rebuild the London Bridge.

The disposal of the old London Bridge was brought up on the agenda. The city government specially held a parliament meeting to discuss it. At this meeting, city councilor Ivan Luckin proposed to offer this old bridge to an antique market for auction.

The city government published the auction notice and until five weeks before the auction day, not a single bid was made. Luckin believed that it was due to lack of promotion.He proposed to the government to run a press conference in New York to attract local developers. The government took his advice.

Luckin knew that London Bridge might be a tough sell. Completed in 1831 from a design by engineer John Rennie, it was the less glamorous successor of several other crossings, most notably the medieval London Bridge, which stood for 600 years and was once dotted with buildings and waterwheels. Londoners considered the existing bridge dull by comparison, but after arriving in America, Luckin promoted it as a timeless landmark.

“London Bridge is not just a bridge,” he announced in a press conference in New York. “It is the heir to 2,000 years of history going back to the first century A.D., to the time of the Roman Londinium.” This was quoted by many newspapers in their top stories.

The news was caught by U.S.real estate developer McCulloch.

Mr. McCulloch bought the development rights to 16,000-acres in Havasu Lake City in 1963, where he built houses to sell. However, hardly any were sold. He made many attempts to attract buyers but little progress was made. It was far out of the way and not many people were interested.

The idea hit McCulloch that if he brought the London Bridge to Havasu Lake City, the whole world would pay attention, and the place would become a tourist destination. Then his houses would sell and the price of the land would rise as well.

He immediately put his idea into action by submitting his bidding and starting conversations on how to move the bridge across. There wasn’t any competitor for the auction.He bought the London Bridge easily at USD 2,460,000.

It was a long distance from the U.K. to the U.S.. Taking the bridge down and packing the parts for shipping was a challenge. The London Bridge was covered by stones on the outside. To maintain its look, McCulloch asked workers to number all the parts and hoist them onto a huge ship.The ship took these parts to Long Beach in California. Then they were transported by train and trucks till they reached Havasu Lake City. There they were built into the London Bridge again according to John Rennie’s original design.

McCulloch asked his designer to build English houses,shops, and churches around the bridge to match its style and to form a unique area of “little London”.

The day when the bridge was built, many people from the U.K. as well as other parts of the world came to see this bridge from London. It wasn’t built on the lake but on a peninsula between the city and the lake.It was a beautiful scene that attracted many visitors.

People also started to buy houses here and soon all were sold. The prices soared and local residents benefited from this ancient bridge.

A worn-out bridge became an antique and with this, it not only brought prosperity to a city but also sealed its story in the history books.

（From Science and Technology Daily, June 8,2017. Translation: Zhang Lei)

如何处置废弃的伦敦桥，已提到市政府议事日程。为此，伦敦市政府专门召开市议员讨论会。在会上，伊凡·路金市议员提议，将这座伦敦桥作为古董投放到市场上拍卖。

市政府通过媒体发出拍卖通告，距离拍卖日仅剩5个星期，也没有一个人提交申请竞拍。路金认为，这是因为拍卖的宣传不到位。他向市政府建议，到纽约召开一次新闻发布会，以吸引当地的开发商。市政府采纳了他的意见。

路金知道，伦敦桥可能难以售卖。1831年工程师约翰·雷尼设计完成的伦敦桥是历座伦敦桥中不那么吸引人的一座。最引人注目的是中世纪的伦敦桥，它历时600年，曾缀满建筑和水轮。相比之下，伦敦人认为当时待拆的伦敦桥沉闷无趣，但在抵达美国后，路金将其作为一个永恒的里程碑。“伦敦桥不仅仅是一座桥，”他在纽约的新闻发布会上宣布。“它是2000年历史的继承者，可以追溯到公元1世纪，追溯到罗马帝国时代。”这句话被很多媒体引用，作为新闻头条进行报道。

这条新闻引起美国房地产开发商麦卡洛克的高度关注。

麦卡洛克曾在1963年买下哈瓦苏湖城1.6万英亩的土地开发权。他买下这块地后建楼建厦，然后出售，但没想到前来买房置业的人寥寥无几。他想了很多办法，招揽客户来买他的房子，但收效甚微。这个地方比较荒芜，少有人问津。

麦卡洛克突发奇想：如果把伦敦古桥搬到哈瓦苏湖城，想必可以聚焦全世界的目光，这样，这块土地就会成为旅游胜地，哈瓦苏湖城的房子就容易出售，地价也会飙升。

他立即行动起来，提交竞拍申请，讨论搬迁伦敦桥事宜。此时没有竞争者，他以246万美元的价格，顺利地买下伦敦桥。

英国与美国相距遥远，如何将这座大桥拆卸并装载过去成了大问题。伦敦桥外层是由石头组成的，为了保持古桥的原有风貌，麦卡洛克让人把伦敦桥的构件逐一编号拆卸吊装到巨轮上，乘巨轮到达加利福尼亚长滩，再用火车、汽车运往哈瓦苏湖城，最后再按照约翰兰尼设计的伦敦桥原图在哈瓦苏湖上重建此桥。