My last stop on my amazing southwest trek was the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Built in 1831, by the 1960s, London Bridge, situated over the Thames, was sinking into the river bank. The government put it up for sale, and it was purchased by the founder of Lake Havasu City. Taken down and reassembled brick-by-brick, the London Bridge now looks out over a far different landscape.
We walked across the bridge, seeing it reflected in the water at night. A beaver swam by, giving a hint that despite the seemingly urban setting, the Colorado River still courses here in this section of Arizona.
As we walked, I imagined London as it was in the 1800s, and pictured the people that may have stood on the bridge, perhaps in the exact spot I stood: H. G. Wells, George Gissing, Jules Verne, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The same year the London Bridge was built was the same year Frankenstein first appeared with her name on it, instead of the previous anonymous edition.

It was magical to stand on this transported bridge, which in turn transported me back to its origins across time and the sea.