Secret Stowaways
Moving has become a way of life in the world that we live in today. Many people after they are grown decide to move away from where they were born and raised. Moving not only applies to people, but to material things on a much larger scale. The space shuttle is moved piggy-back on top of a 747 all the way from one end of the country where it lands, to the opposite end of the country to where's it launched off into space.
Stationary land based structures are more of a challenging type of thing to move. The Cape Hatteras light house in North Carolina was moved back a safe distance from the encroaching Atlantic ocean. Entire houses, and buildings are moved often as well. However all of these structure are neither moved very far from their original place, or actually leave the ground.
What was fascinating to me is that an entire 130,000 ton granite bridge which spanned a river in Europe was moved. This bridge however was moved a grand total of 5,400 miles to it's new home. The bridge was originally completed in 1831, and spanned over a section of the Thames River in London, England. This bridge known as the London bridge was purchased for $2,460,000, and moved to it's new home at Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The total cost for relocation, and reassembly of the London bridge was 5.1 million dollars.
Prior to the bridge being disassembled in London, England, each of the bridge's granite blocks were meticulously numbered with four numbers. the first number indicated the span of the bridge. The second number indicated the row of stones. The final two numbers indicated it's position in the row. All of the blocks were then shipped through the Panama canal to Long Beach, California. The pieces were then hauled by truck to it's new home at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it took workers four years to put it all back together like a puzzle from the original 1824 plans.
During the re-dedication ceremony for the London bridge on October 10th 1971, four people who were dressed in Victorian style clothing were witnessed walking across the London bridge. At first they were thought to be apart of the ceremony, but later people realized that they were unreal. From time to time there are still sightings of spirits on the bridge, and some folks have actually been bumped by these ghosts on the bridge itself. It's seems hard to believe, but these spirits somehow stowed away with the granite cargo, and made the long journey half way around the world to where they are today. These spirits may have never of had any intentions of moving so far away from their British home, but fate obviously had other plans for them.
