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The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Arizona’s Big, Big Souvenir

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1960s, London Bridge was falling down – specifically, it was sinking down under the weight of modern-day traffic. London decided to put the bridge up for sale, and it attracted all kinds of buyers, from casinos to major cities to entertainers. But the winning bid came from an unexpected place: a chainsaw-manufacturing millionaire in the Arizona desert. Learn more about London Bridge at Lake Havasu City, and check out the voodoo doll found under the bridge. Arizona’s Big, Big SouvenirThis episode was produced in partnership with Visit Arizona.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

What is the largest souvenir that you've ever brought home from a trip? One time, my wife and I were

0:08.6

living in Hungary, in Budapest for a year. We found a taxidermy's antique. It was a taxidermied fox

0:18.3

holding a little taxidermy duck under its arm.

0:22.8

So we bought it.

0:24.6

And then my parents came and visited and we said, hey, can you please fly home with this?

0:30.3

So they had to bring a little paper bag and a little fox, which is standing up.

0:35.1

This little head is poking out of the bag.

0:37.2

They carried it out of the plane.

0:39.1

Thanks, well.

0:39.6

Thanks, Dad.

0:41.4

I'm always trying to bring big, dumb stuff home from trips.

0:46.8

And it's always such a pain in the butt.

0:49.4

But then when you get it home, it's kind of worth it.

0:52.2

Anyway, picture the biggest souvenir you've ever tried to

0:56.1

bring home. Well, I tell you this next little story. In the 1960s, London Bridge was in fact

1:10.7

falling down, just like the nursery rhyme.

1:14.0

Though actually, it might be more accurate to say that London Bridge was sinking down,

1:19.8

as in it was literally sinking into the mud.

1:22.1

There had been this bridge in this spot in London since Roman times.

1:26.5

But the version they had had in the 1960s was actually built in the 1800s.

1:31.3

And in 1800s, they just had horses and buggies, not cars and double-deckers trying to drive over this thing.

1:38.3

And so the weight of all these modern cars and double-decker red London sightseeing buses was slowly driving the bridge into the mud.

...

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