There are few places on earth as romantic as Paris and couples from around the world have visited the City of Lights to add another lock on the Pont des Arts bridge over the years. Unfortunately, too much love has visited the bridge and it has been closed due to too many of the ‘love locks.’
Over the weekend, 2.4 meters of the railing collapsed because of the heavy locks. Police rushed to the footbridge to get people off it and closed it immediately, notes The AFP.
Police said that the bridge over the Seine would be reopened today.
While anyone outside Paris may like the idea of permanently leaving a sign of love in the city, those who live there have been complaining about the love locks for years. According to the BBC, two friends in Paris have begun a campaign called “No Love Locks” to stop the eyesore from getting any worse.
“The delicate Pont des Arts has become a freakish glut of indistinguishable metal lumps, and worse, is now in mortal danger,” Lisa Anselmo, one of the campaign’s founders, wrote on her blog.
The love lock has become such a part of pop culture around the world that they were even featured on a Parks and Recreation episode in the U.S. It’s not clear what started the trend, but it is fairly recent and Paris is not the only city invaded by locks. The BBC notes that back in 2007, rome’s mayor started issuing fines to anyone caught putting locks on a lamppost.