Paris Officials Remove Love Locks From Pont Des Arts Bridge Due To Added Weight On Infrastructure

"Love Locks" in Paris have become more than a tradition than a tourist attraction as this symbolically shows that a couple's love has been locked up forever. However, this tradition has to be removed as the locks, which is estimated to be around a million, has resulted to the collapse of a part of the Pont Des Arts bridge last year.

The "love locks" reportedly weighed an extra 45 tons and these should be removed by the Paris officials to avoid further damage to the said bridge. Paris officials started to remove the grills of the bridge where the padlocks have been "tied" since Monday morning.

Couples use metal pad locks to seal their love then throw the key on the river under the bridge. There has been no plans regarding fishing out the keys from the river underneath the bridge.

According to BBC, the metal grills that were removed will be replaced with panels that have been painted by street artists. After these new panels are placed, transparent panels will also be put in place towards the end of the year.

In a statement released by Paris deputy mayor Bruno Julliard to the publication, the padlocks spoil the aesthetics of the bridge and it is structurally bad for the infrastructure as it could cause serious accidents. However, he still pointed out that they have carefully thought of the plan to remove the locks as they did not want to hurt the feeling of the people who placed them there. He added that despite the removal of the locks, Paris is still the capital of love and romance.

A campaign was started by Paris last year to ask people visiting the bridge to just take selfies instead of putting locks but the idea was not supported by tourists.

A lot of people expressed their concern over the removal of the pad locks but were not able to do anything to stop the procedure by Paris officials. An advocacy group called No Love Locks was actually very delighted with the decision of the officials as they feel that the locks are a form of vandalism.

Aside from removing the padlocks at the Pont Des Arts bridge, locks were also removed at the Pont de l'Archeveche. Venice also asked tourists not to attach locks to the Rialto bridge but no details have been shared if the pleas in this area was successful.