Hancock’ s iconic red bridge over the C&O Canal appears to be taking over where Paris left off. On the bottom rung of the steel bridge, several locks are attached to the railing and each other.
The practice of snapping a lock onto a public bridge as a symbol of romantic love became a tradition in the French city of Paris.
There, the Pont Des Arts, a bridge over the river Seine, was renamed the Love Lock bridge after padlocks starting appearing on the cast iron railings. Lovers would write their names and a date on the padlock, close it around the railing, and then throw the key into the river. Between the mid-2000s and 2014, more than 700,000 locks appeared on the bridge. The
City of Paris finally removed the locks, which were adding too much weight to the historic structure. Many of those locks were kept and are placed on display by the city periodically.
Perhaps Hancock’s bridge will pick up where Paris left off…
