Love Locks Getting Clipped Off Key Bridge, DDOT Says

Love locks, which have been showing up on the railing of Key Bridge that links Georgetown and Arlington, will be cut off the structure Thursday by the District Department of Transportation, the agency says.

While Washington, D.C., may not want to look like it is anti-romantic, the padlocks are seen as damaging to the bridge over the long term.

“We are all about love—a nice bridge is love, a working bridge is love—but we are going to have to take them down,” DDOT spokesperson Reggie Sanders told WJLA. “It is an aesthetic problem as well.”

While love locks have been around for a long time, love locks on bridges gained major popularity in Europe within the past 10 years. Locks are put on railings or fences with a special inscription for the two lovers. Locks have also been cluttering up the Brooklyn Bridge. In June, the love-famed Pont des Arts footbridge in Paris near the Louvre lost part of its fencing which collapsed under the weight of so many locks.

Sanders further argued to WTOP: “Locks are being removed because we don’t want to establish a precedence where our structures could become polluted with these types of campaigns. Also, it could jeopardize the functionality of the railings.”