I'm not sure how long this has been a thing, but it appears loving couples have been memorializing their love by placing a lock on the Sixth Street Bridge.

This did not end well for the original love lock bridge.

While walking across the Sixth Street Bridge this weekend, I noticed an increase in 'love locks' placed on the structure.

Jojo Girard/TSM
Jojo Girard/TSM
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Love locks are combination or key locks placed on the bridge railing to commemorate the love between two people. Sometimes the love locks contain the names of the couple, sometimes they have a love symbol like a heart on them. Many times they are left blank.

Jojo Girard/TSM
Jojo Girard/TSM
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According to Wikipedia, 

Typically the (lock's) key is thrown away to symbolize unbreakable love.

 

Since the 2000s, love locks have proliferated at an increasing number of locations worldwide. They are now mostly treated by municipal authorities as litter or vandalism, and there is some cost to their removal. However, there are authorities who embrace them, and who use them as fundraising projects or tourism attractions.

The Wikipedia article also claims there is a lovelock bridge in Rockford, but I'm not sure which one. I hope it's not Hell's Bridge, because that would be weird.

Jojo Girard/TSM
Jojo Girard/TSM
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The most well known Love Bridge was the Pont Des Arts in Paris, where lovers placed so many locks after it was made popular in an Italian young adult book in subsequent film, that it threatened to collapse the entire structure into the Seine River. Authorities put an end to the tradition by installing a lock proof railing.

The Sixth Street Bridge is far from being in that kind of trouble, but if it keeps up, the authorities may have to step in. In the meantime, how about investing in a little couples therapy before locking your love to the bridge.

Jojo Girard/TSM
Jojo Girard/TSM
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