
The bridge that crossed an ocean - open-source-ux
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the_bridge_that_crossed_an_ocean
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dsfyu404ed
It always amazes me what kinds of projects it was actually possible to
undertake and complete even just half a century ago.

If a middle aged billionaire wanted to do something similar they'd die old age
before it ever made it out of the courtroom. You'd have to take long term
inflation into account when making your cost estimates.

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rmason
I remember as a teenager when this was all happening. The archives are paid
only but Life Magazine had a big spread showing the bridge's re-dedication.

TV covered it and if my memory is correct 60 minutes interviewed McCulloch and
covered his plans for Lake Havasu. Unfortunately their online archives don't
start until the early seventies. The year the bridge was dedicated was the
first year of the program.

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skibz
What I find most interesting about this piece is the sum for which the
property was sold.

> “Someone sensibly asked what they might get for [the bridge] and Ivan is
> recorded as saying, ‘one million’,” says Archie.

> “And they said, ‘one million dollars?’

> “Ivan said, ‘I’m talking about one million pounds.’ [Nearly three millions
> dollars at the time.] They sat up at that.”

What were the motivations for this asking price and how may they have been
substantiated?

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larkeith
For reference, that's about $21m today.

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yardie
Meanwhile the over land bridge being built down the street from, $800m. And I
can almost guarantee it will be at least 20% over budget, because Miami. So
closer to $1B

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Someone
That inflation-corrected $21 million was only for materials, not even all of
them, that had to be transported from Europe and put together again.

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jpatokal
I had always conflated selling the London Bridge with "selling" the Brooklyn
Bridge, as in "...and I've got a bridge to sell you":
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Parker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Parker)

Glad to hear this sale actually happened and worked out well for both parties!

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ur-whale
Layout of this site is _very_ hard to read on desktop.

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RobertRoberts
You got voted down, but I've seen plenty of other sites with just as bad a
layout discuss how terrible web 3.0 (or whatever we are calling it) has been
for web design.

I felt like I was constantly looking through a pile of papers on a messy desk
and I could never quite see clearly one photo at a time. It was irritating.

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ur-whale
> You got voted down

I say _exactly_ what I think in my comments, and as a result, a tad less than
half my posts do get downvoted :D

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mrhappyunhappy
Nothing wrong with speaking your mind. Someone has to go against the grain.
the claim goes, you’re not contributing to conversion and I say, do we always
have to contribute?! No. Downvote me, see how much I care :)

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cryptozeus
What a fascinating story!

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contingencies
Growth hack.

