On July 4, 1968, the port of Long Beach, California, received the first shipment of 855 tons of granite transported from London. American customs officials faced the task of determining what duties to apply to these stones. The decision was clear: none, because the cargo was registered as an antiquity. This saved about $270,600 in taxes. These stones were part of the London Bridge, the one that has been referenced in the British nursery rhyme about a structure that collapses. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recounts this event in its historical archives, noting that the bridge changed continents thanks to a simple checkmark on a customs form. An American industrialist, Robert McCulloch, purchased the London Bridge in 1968 for $2,460,000 with the goal of attracting residents to his new city in Arizona. The U.S. customs classified the bridge as an antiquity because it was 137 years old, which exempted it from the $270,600 duty. The 10,000 tons of granite were transported by ship to Long Beach and then by truck across the desert to Lake Havasu City. The original London Bridge, built in 1831, had become unstable due to traffic and was no longer structurally sound. The City of London decided to sell it rather than continue to maintain it. McCulloch, known for his outboard motors and chainsaws, had founded Lake Havasu City in the middle of the Arizona desert. His city had a lake, sunshine, and land to sell, but it needed a name that the world would recognize. The London Bridge was expected to attract residents and visitors. The total cost of the purchase, including transportation, exceeded $2.7 million before the first stone was even reassembled. It then took three years of reconstruction and several additional millions for the structure to be completed in the desert. For an operation launched on the intuition of a businessman, the budget made more than one accountant lose their temper. When a shipment of goods crosses the American border, it is taxed based on its nature. For this bridge, the customs duty would have been 11%, which would have added $270,600 to the bill. However, since the bridge was 137 years old, it was classified as an antiquity, and the duty was waived. The bridge was then entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest antiquity ever sold. The title remained in the CBP records, which view it as an anecdote in its history. A structure that was put up for sale because it was sinking became a collectible item when it crossed the border. The reasoning held, since the age of the bridge was a fact. McCulloch did not falsify anything. He was simply the first to classify an entire bridge in the same category as a Louis XV piece of furniture. The transport of the 10,000 tons of stone was done in several shipments. The first, of 855 tons, represented only 8.5% of the total. This shipment made a 10,000-mile journey, approximately 16,000 kilometers, over the course of an entire month. The ship passed through the Panama Canal before arriving at Long Beach on July 4, 1968, and the file was handed to customs agent Joseph D. Farrar. As a comparison, 10,000 tons is approximately the weight of the steel structure of the Eiffel Tower. This was assembled on site in two years, while the London Bridge had to cross half the globe in pieces. The final section of the bridge was loaded onto trucks for 300 miles, approximately 480 kilometers, to Lake Havasu City. After a month at sea, the road seemed short, but it crossed a Californian and Arizona desert where the stones of the Thames no longer resembled anything that truck drivers were used to delivering. McCulloch's calculation was simple: a famous monument is worth more than an advertising campaign. He was right. According to the CBP, his bet paid off, since the bridge remains one of the most visited tourist attractions in Arizona. Today, the city guides promote a structure from 1831 placed on the edge of an artificial lake, more than 8,000 kilometers from the Thames. According to several sources, including the Wikipedia page of the structure, only the exterior granite cladding made the journey: Arizona built a reinforced concrete bridge, dressed in the original masonry. The official "rechristening" took place on October 10, 1971, more than three years after the arrival of the first shipment in Long Beach.