Love Lock Bridge - overburdened with love

The Pont des Arts (aka Love Lock Bridge) was recently in the news when a section collapsed under the weight of the locks. It's a pedestrian bridge that embodies an ancient tradition dating back to... err... 2008, where you symbolically seal your love into a lock, attach it to the bridge, and throw the key into the Seine.

The result - a bridge completely covered in locks...two bridges actually...

1.  Pont des Arts - between the Louvre and the Institut de France.

2.  Pont de l'Archevêché - near the south-east corner of the Notre Dame.

In true Paris style, the former is said to be for committed love, and the later for lovers.

Both are worthy of a visit, and have great views of the Seine. There is also something alluring about the organic growth of the strange phenomena - which begs the question, why? Forget the romance... I think the underlying concept on display here is the human desire to be or do something unique, and the irony that in fact people are simply following a trend, doing the same unique thing that millions of others have done before them. But getting back to the bridge itself...

It seems Pont des Arts came first, attracting criticism from City Hall officials and some Parisians, concerned that the bridge would be damaged by the weight of all the love (as recently proven) and some considering it an eyesore (which is a load of rubbish in my opinion...have they ever been in a metro station?).

In 2010, shortly after City Hall announced the locks would eventually need to be removed, the bridge was mysteriously stripped bare, under the cloak of darkness. City Hall were quick to deny responsibility, and in the end it was found that an art student had removed the locks to create a sculpture.

Love locks soon returned however, and apparently faster than before. It also seems that the event encouraged the birth of the second love lock bridge mentioned earlier - Pont de l'Archevêché.

So for now the love locks are here to stay...well most of them anyway. City Hall routinely inspect the bridges, and if panels are found to be bent etc, then they are replaced for safety reasons.

And in case you were wondering, the fad did not start in Paris. Where it all started is not known exactly, but the phenomena exists in countless locations around the world, some dating back over 100 years.

If you previously placed a lock on the bridge you might want to check welocklove.com - which has created a photo database of over 50,000 locks from both bridges, allowing viewers to click different sections of the bridges to find their lock.