The Parisian love locks – good riddance to rusty metal
Photo courtesy of Claire Waddington http://ParisWithClaire.com
On 1st June 2015, the authorities in Paris began the monumental task of removing between 45 and 60 tons of padlocks from the city’s Pont des Arts bridge in the centre of the city. Located within eyesight of the famous Notre Dame, the bridge has become a place for lovers visiting the city of romance to symbolically ‘lock’ their love to each other by writing or engraving their names and a short message before attaching the lock to the bridge, keeping one key and throwing the other into the flowing river Seine below. A romantic gesture with just one flaw: it is killing the bridge.
To understand why the removal of the locks is not only necessary but also not the crime against romantic gestures that is worthy of a war crime tribunal some make it out to be, we need to put everything into a historical context.
The Pont des Arts
Pont des Arts was constructed in the early 1800s under the reign of Napoleon I. It was completed in 1804 and spans the river Seine, linking the Institut de France and the Palais des Arts. It was historic at the time as it was the first metal bridge built in Paris.
In 1975 the bridge was listed by the French government as natural historical monument. After being closed in 1977 due to damage discovered that had been caused during the two world wars, the bridge had a 60 metre section collapse following a barge strike.
The bridge was rebuilt between 1981 and 1984 but with fewer arches and aligned to the Pont Neuf and inaugurated by Jacques Chirac, then Mayor of the city.
The love locks
Photo courtesy of Claire Waddington http://ParisWithClaire.com
Compared to the long history of the bridge, and of the romantic city of Paris itself, the placing of locks on the Pont des Arts to show commitment to a loved one has barely gone past the stage of conception, let alone being born into a tradition.
The idea of love padlocks isn’t a new one, however its use on the bridges of Paris was popularised by the Italian novel ‘I want you’. Locks began appearing on the Pont des Art in 2007, and by 2015 the estimated weight of all the locks on the bridge was somewhere between 45 and 60 tons
Many attempts have been made to try and stop the practice including a campaign to have lovers take selfies on the bridges instead of attaching locks, but it seemed to have very little effect on the craze. Finally, on 1st June 2015, the locks were removed among a mixture of responses ranging from sadness and loss, to sheer elation.
The dangers and damage the locks have caused
Photo courtesy of Claire Waddington http://ParisWithClaire.com
As well as the visible damage to the safety mesh that surrounds the bridge, the sheer weight of the locks has caused sections of panelling to fall from the side of the bridge onto the walkway. It is only through luck it hasn’t injured anyone or fallen down to the river below which has a steady stream of open-topped tourist boats passing underneath. The bridge itself had also began to crumble away.
An important factor to take into consideration is that the bridge itself is a pedestrian bridge. It is designed to carry the weight of people across its span. 60 tons of extra weight on the bridge is the equivalent of 48 average weight saloon cars. That weight is there permanently, pushing down on the bridge and its supports. It had got to the point that any more could have caused more significant damage and the real risk of further collapse of the bridge itself.
The aesthetics of the locks.
Photo courtesy of Claire Waddington http://ParisWithClaire.com
When the placing of locks on the Pont des Art started, it would have been a few sparingly placed locks across the length of the bridge. However, over time lovers have had to fight for any space they could find to place their lock on the bridge. The whole 155 metres of the bridge became saturated with some areas being covered two or three locks deep . With the locks remaining outside and exposed to the elements long after the lovers have left, the locks soon begin to rust and look more like scrap metal than a symbol of love. Although some may argue something starting out fresh and shiny and slowly becoming tired and rusty as it ages is the perfect symbol for some relationships, for those wishing to enjoy or live in Paris it is painful on the eye.
The aesthetic argument is also important when you know that a large stretch of the Paris riverside has been designated as a World Heritage Site. If locks were placed on, say, Stone Henge causing damage to the stones themselves, or even just changing the look of the site it wouldn’t be tolerated. It would be treated as vandalism. So the placing of metal on bridges around Paris should be treated the same. Adding a sentimental value to an act of vandalism shouldn’t make it any less tolerable or acceptable.
Common Sense over sentiment
Photo courtesy of Claire Waddington http://ParisWithClaire.com
The decision to remove the locks by the Parisian authorities is one that was much needed but has split opinion, especially among those who have placed locks or were hoping to do so. The simple fact of the matter is that a ‘tradition’ that is less than a decade old is in real danger of ruining a piece of architecture that in one form or another has been around for hundreds of years. If you strip back the emotional side of things, anyone can see that removing 60 tons of metal to preserve hundreds of years of history is the correct course of action, and arguably one that should have been taken a long time ago.
“But it’s so sad”
Photo courtesy of Claire Waddington http://ParisWithClaire.com
I realise that taking the emotional aspect away is difficult for people, especially when they have an romantic connection, so let me try and re-frame the love locks to show why their removal and possible destruction isn’t the crime against romance some would like to believe.
Many argue that the locks themselves are a symbol of two people’s love for each other, but lets think about this logically. The lock itself is just a piece of cheap metal, maybe with an inscription. The symbolic part of the practice is the action. Two people, together, in the city of love, locking their love. The lock was merely a tool in that process and it would have been no different if they used a ribbon, a piece of hair or a shoelace. It’s the ceremony that holds all of the emotional value and meaning, not the lock. In years to come, those lovers will tell tales to their grandchildren of how they went to Paris, and affirmed their passion and commitment for one another. No one will respond by saying “wow, a padlock, how romantic”.
The memory will be what lasts through the years. The memory will be what makes you rekindle your love on a dark, cold night. The memory will be what reminds you why you love person you made the commitment to in the first place. The memory, not a material lock. No authority has the power to take memories away, and hopefully those memories will last as long as the Pont des Arts now has the chance to.
