Postcard from London: These rings aren’t cheap

This isn’t your ordinary structure that provides passage.

The London Bridge refers to several bridges that span the River Thames between London and Southwark. It has changed forms over time, from a succession of timber bridges to a medieval design 600 years ago to stone to its current construction of concrete and steel.

The first London Bridge was built by the Roman military as part of a program to help consolidate their conquest, because if there was anything the Romans liked to do back then, it was strut their stuff after any big discovery.

Here, you see the Olympic rings suspended from the Tower Bridge, one of the capital’s most iconic landmarks. The rings are 37 feet high and 82 feet wide and weigh three tons. They cost more than $300,000 to build and over $100,000 to install.

And who said the British were working on a small Olympics budget? 

(Ed Graney is covering the Olympics in London for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney. More Olympics coverage can be found at lvrj.com/olympics.)