You don't have to turn to New York City or London to buy one of the most unusual yet affordable gifts in the world for Christmas.

PennDOT will sell you a historic bridge.

Not the Brooklyn Bridge, silly. We've been scammed enough already.

And not the London Bridge. A rich dude bought it for $2.4 million back in 1962, then had it dismantled, shipped to the United States and reassembled in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., where he made a fortune selling real estate.

PennDOT currently has 11 old bridges listed for sale on its Web site. Business must be good. Since I checked about a year ago, five of them are gone.

One or two of the bridges being marketed remain in service at spots where traffic volume is low. Several are so badly deteriorated that they look like they'd collapse under the weight of a one-horse open sleigh.

Here are some of the bridges with local ties for sale for a song, with the federal government paying up to 80 percent of the costs of moving and historic preservation:

Loyalhanna Creek Bridge -- This vintage 259-foot-long, 28.5-foot-wide two-spanner crosses scenic Loyalhanna Creek just north of the Route 30-982 intersection near Latrobe. The Warren Pony Steel Truss dates to 1931. Federal Highway Administration relocation assistance available.

Beatty Mills Bridge -- A beauty over Buffalo Creek in Armstrong County and a remarkable example of the Wrought Iron Bridge Co.'s "column iron arch bridge" described in the long-gone company's 1874 catalog. The one-lane structure was rehabilitated in 1991.

St. Vincent High Bridge -- Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad around 1880 to carry Monastery Road over mainline tracks just north of St. Vincent College, where the Steelers hold camp every summer. Good for large tailgate parties. Deck is 157 feet long. Comes with 71 feet of approach spans.

Senn Bridge -- This lovely 78-year-old bridge in Butler County spans Little Connoquenessing Creek in Jackson. At 91 feet long, it incorporates both riveted and pinned connections and is supported on concrete abutments. Eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Shaughnessy Road Bridge -- Pittsburgh Bridge Co., once a large manufacturer of truss bridges, built this 55-footer over Apalachin Creek in northeastern Pennsylvania in 1898. It features a series of steel triangles connected by pins at the ends. A handyman's dream.

PennDOT tries to sell and save some of the state's historic bridges when they have to be replaced because of width and load limitations. By law, they're first offered to municipal governments. Then ownership can pass to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Then the public can get a crack under the right circumstances, including a commitment to preserve the structure.

In the past, PennDOT has agreed to allow historic bridges to be placed in state parks, on school campuses and with rails-to-trails groups.

What happens when nobody's interested? "If there are no buyers, it becomes the property of the contractor building a new bridge," said Tom Minnich, a PennDOT environmental manager involved with marketing the historic spans. "You would be surprised. We often find people who are interested, although there are costs involved with disassembling the bridges, moving them, refurbishing them and rebuilding them elsewhere."

Six years after PennDOT closed a 130-year-old cast- and wrought-iron bridge called the Bollman Bridge near Meyersdale in Somerset County, the bridge became part of the Allegheny Trail.

In 2002, Central Pennsylvania College near Harrisburg accepted an 1869 bowstring truss bridge from PennDOT, renovated it and moved it to campus under the guidance of a civil engineering professor and his students. Today, it links the main campus to a new technology building on the other side of a stream.

Perhaps one particular old bridge up for grabs should be brought back home to Pittsburgh, where it was built in the 19th century, to help celebrate the city's 250th birthday.

The Shaughnessy Road Bridge could be used as a signature bridge in the "City of Bridges," but not for cars and trucks. We have enough old bridges for them.

Rather, it could serve as the new pedestrian bridge crossing Allegheny Avenue next to Heinz Field, a safety measure approved last month in a settlement that Majestic Star Casino owner Don Barden reached with the Steelers and the Pirates over traffic-related issues on the North Shore.

From photos I've seen, the old steel structure looks as if it would be a good fit and compatible with the architecture of its neighbors.

PennDOT will be glad to gift-wrap it.