One of the most fascinating true-life stories of the twentieth century is how an American businessman decided to export the for-sale old version of London Bridge to Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
Cinemagoers in 1993 were given a reference to it as the place where retiring LA Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall) was heading with his over-bearing wife (played by Tuesday Weld) in the late Joel Schumacher thriller FALLING DOWN, in which rebel strung-out vigilante D-FENS (Michael Douglas) loses it and wreaks havoc on the desperate underbelly of LA society as he attempts to reach his wife (Barbara Hershey) and their daughter.
Jon-Paul Gates doesn’t refer to that film in his factual documentary LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN: BUILD IT UP AGAIN. Merely, this is an analysis of the political and social importance of the bridge, as seen from both sides of the Atlantic.
For much of the documentary, Gates interviews author Travis Elborough who also looks at the background and context to why businessman Robert P. McCulloch would pay the amount of money he did to transport the bridge, stone for stone via boat to firstly Long Beach in California and then by truck to Lake Havasu City.
Simplistic in tone and basically staged, LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN: BUILD IT UP AGAIN nonetheless still has a lot to offer audiences.
Particularly fascinating is how the very spot London Bridge was designed to rehabilitate as a tourist attraction has become much more than a point of visit to see the Bridge and that it is the Lake itself that has emerged as the catalyst for growth in both economic and social ways. As for the original site, Alborough also comments on the effect of climate change, which has prompted people to move towards a more greener existence and to only use the bridge as a pedestrian point-of-access each way across the Thames.
There is one key legend that has been commented on which Gates touches on as to whether McCulloch was conned into paying the amount of money for the Bridge as a matter of confusion (another legend is that Americans wanted Tower, rather than London Bridge to be transported across the Atlantic.
Watch the documentary to see and decide for yourself.
LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN: BUILD IT UP AGAIN is available now to view on YouTube.
