coming ♪ greatest lake havasu's attractions is the london bridge. how the bridge made its way to this newly formed desert city. bridge in the desert don't belong together. ,nd then a bridge from london that's totally over-the-top. it still attracts everybody. 's city968, lake havasu founder purchased the london bridge and moved it to his newly formed city. originally completed in 1831, it carried londoners for 130 years. increased traffic caused it to sink and prompted leaders to auction the bridge. the structure was dismantled and relocated to lake havasu city

where it opened as a tourist attraction. aile there, we spoke with history and about the bridge and the impact it had on the city. mcculloch bought the bridge, he left the biggest part in london. he cut slices of it from the outside and that is what he brought over. about 10,000 pieces of bridge. he sold the inside in london again. he sold it for countertops, headstones. he got quite the money for it area he sold the inside for $2.5 million. what you see is a facade. he made a concrete structure in the shape of the bridge and put the piece did -- pieces against it. and hollow.rete original stones from england are against it. the bridge itself is 1000 feet.

widththe same length and as in london. if you take the bridge apart, how do you put it together again? luckily, they numbered each stone individually. map, they wrote each stone on it. they brought the bridge over, the stones. they had a map. they started to put every stone at the same spot again where it was before in london. on the bridge are streetlamps that are made of iron. they have a wonderful story. and came with the bridge they were made in 1831. then we have to do a step back. back to napoleon. , heleon escaped from alba

got his army behind him again. he thought the british in belgium. napoleon lost. wellington, the british general took all of napoleon's cannons and brought them over to england. iron for the streetlights on the bridge. they got napoleon's cannons, melted it and made them into streetlights. the streetlights in lake havasu city are made from the cannons of napoleon. 11, 1971.n october our town had about 5000 people. all stands set up, a parade, there was a dinner, $25 per

person. can you imagine? a lot of money those days. it's kind of impressive. , athe middle of the desert london bridge. who would've ever thought of that? are cities tour staff recently traveled to lake havasu city to learn about its wrist history. learn more about other stops on our tour at c-span.org/cot itiestour. you are watching american history tv on c-span3. >> 75 years ago in november of>> marines made an amphibious assault on a small jacki japanese occupied island f tarawa in the pacific. more than 1000 were killed and one of the most difficult battles in u.s. marines history. next on reel america, with the

marines at tarawa, a 1944 academy award-winning u.s.entary fillepmedmed by cameramen. features pictures of death that may be disturbing to some viewers. [video clip] ♪ [marine anthem playing] ♪ narrator: these are the men on the second marine division. they are now embarking on a full scale amphibious mission after many months of intensive training. the trants