Second only to having your paramour of the hour’s name tattooed indelibly into your skin, locking a padlock to a bridge and throwing the key into a large body of water has become something of a rite of passage for couples with a nascent wish to break up.
It’s only fitting then that the Pont Des Arts in Paris had to be evacuated over the past weekend when a 2.4 metre section of the bridge’s railing reportedly collapsed under the weight of all those shitty love locks and the failed relationships they represent, prompting police to evacuate and close the bridge immediately. An architect and a group of local officials then reportedly came running to erect a temporary barrier, lest tourists stupid enough to affix a padlock to a bridge as a symbol of their undying love attempt to affix a padlock to the bottom of the Seine.
Per a report in The Guardian, the phenomenon of needlessly putting locks of things began in 2008. The cause of much grief for aesthetes working behind-the-scenes on the elaborate ruse that is Paris, the trend has now made its way around the world not unlike “a plague on our city’s historic bridges and sites”; that, according to a petition launched by locals who believe the bridge has been “terribly degraded, both visually and structurally. In a few short years the heart of Paris has been made ugly, robbing Parisians of quality of life and the ability to safely enjoy their own public spaces along the Seine, which has itself been polluted by thousands of discarded keys.”
Police told the Agence France-Presse that the love lockdown will end of Monday, when the bridge will reopen for its intended purpose as a thoroughfare upon which Parisians will resume judging you for desecrating the sanctity of their lives.
via The Guardian, AFP
Photo: Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images
