Removing love locks from bridges

People, a lovelock is an investment.

This is why god invented shrouded padlocks.

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Schlage sie mit mächtigen Schlägen

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It could be a great locksport event. Start picking, and you get to keep what you remove.
Pickers can spend a lot of money buying old locks on eBay

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Some people want to fill the world with silly love locks. What’s wrong with that, I like to know.

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I don’t go to Woody Allen movies anymore

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I think most of those relationships ended long before marriage. In fact they probably ended shortly after visiting the bridge because who wouldn’t be disappointed by such a cliched “romantic” gesture?

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If I remember well, the idea can be traced back to a story from World War I, but the modern trend only goes back 15-20 years. So there’s a good chance that the couple(s) who made it trendy are still alive.

Now when you walk along the river in Paris you can spot locks attached to whatever they can get their tiny hasps around that’s near the water. I once even saw a lock on a temporary orange plastic construction fence. How romantic!

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The local zoo has put up a little fence (not actually fencing anything in) dedicated for love locks.
Love locks found anywhere else on the premises will be removed.
There’s a rumour that repeat offenders will be given the opportunity to attach a love lock to the fence of the tiger enclosure. From the inside.

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359183517745715?journalCode=mcua

Lessons from love-locks: The archaeology of the contemporary assemblage

Ceri Houlbrook

Loss of context is a challenge, if not the bane, of the ritual archaeologist’s craft. Those who research ritual frequently encounter difficulties in the interpretation of its often tantalizingly incomplete material record. Careful analysis of material remains may afford us glimpses into past ritual activity, but our often vast chronological separation from the ritual practitioners themselves prevent us from seeing the whole picture. The archaeologist engaging with structured deposits, for instance, is often forced to study ritual assemblages post-accumulation. Many nuances of its formation, therefore, may be lost in interpretation. This article considers what insights an archaeologist could gain into the place, people, pace and purpose of deposition by recording an accumulation of structured deposits during its formation, rather than after. To answer this, the article focuses on a contemporary depositional practice: the love-lock. This custom involves the inscribing of names/initials onto a padlock, its attachment to a bridge or other public structure, and the deposition of the corresponding key into the water below; a ritual often enacted by a couple as a statement of their romantic commitment. Drawing on empirical data from a three-year diachronic site-specific investigation into a love-lock bridge in Manchester, UK, the author demonstrates the value of contemporary archaeology in engaging with the often enigmatic material culture of ritual accumulations.

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Those will certainly endure slightly better than you basic ‘master’ lock or chinesium special; but I suspect that there’s a reason why “don’t let the bastards grind you down” was coined prior to the availability of decent portable angle grinders; and why there isn’t an analogous cliche for thermic lances.

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the reasons love padlocks started to appear vary between locations and in many instances are unclear. However, in Rome, the ritual of affixing love padlocks to the bridge Ponte Milvio can be attributed to the 2006 book I Want You by Italian author Federico Moccia, who made a film adaptation in 2007.

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Has anybody done the math on the weight of the average lock? Should Engineers factor this into their bridges. Are there signs that Lock Limit XXX numbers of locks. So many question lacking lock answers.

I’m smiling now, but I know later I’ll be cursing you and this damnable earworm.

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I’d put a lock up someplace safe.

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(And @Tamsin_Bailey) You two are Masters.

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You could put it in @beschizza’s safe.

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Capital idea.

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If divorcing couples would come back and remove the locks they put up, we would not have this problem.

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…And we will beat you with your own selfie stick !