--- ---  # Love Can Make a Bridge Collapse  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jun 9, 2014 12:54 PM UTC  'Love padlocks' attached to a fence of the Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine river in Paris on June 9, 2014. 'Love padlocks' attached to a fence of the Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine river in Paris on June 9, 2014.Jacques Demarthon—AFP/Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jun 9, 2014 12:54 PM UTC A two-meter segment of the iconic Pont des Arts bridge in Paris was overcome with the weight of love and [partially collapsed](http://www.france24.com/en/20140609-paris-pont-des-arts-bridge-railing-collapse-love-locks/) Sunday night. The bridge has become famous for “love locks,” a tradition in which people fasten a lock to the bridge and then throw the key into the river as a symbol of eternal love and ironclad commitment. But the locks became too heavy and a portion of the bridge railing buckled under the pressure of so many romantic expectations, France 24 reports. A part of the bridge collapsed last summer under the weight of the locks, causing many to say the locks pose a safety threat to the thousands of people who walk over the bridge every day or ride under it on ferries. Some are even calling for all the locks to be removed, which means everybody who ever attached a lock to the bridge will instantly break up and fall out of love. Maybe the bridge just wanted something a little more causal. Paris Love Bridge Railing Collapses Under Weight of Locks ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2847633/pont-de-arts-bridge-paris/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2847633/pont-de-arts-bridge-paris/"},"headline":"Love Can Make a Bridge Collapse","datePublished":"2014-06-09T12:54:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:31.970Z","description":"More like a bridge railing, but still","url":"https://time.com/2847633/pont-de-arts-bridge-paris/","keywords":["Newsfeed","relationships","Love","World","Bridge","architecture","paris"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d9571c9b9a27225/698696b63617605b3c90c83f/paris-bridge-love-locks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d9571c9b9a27225/698696b63617605b3c90c83f/paris-bridge-love-locks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"'Love padlocks' attached to a fence of the Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine river in Paris on June 9, 2014.","caption":"'Love padlocks' attached to a fence of the Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine river in Paris on June 9, 2014.","creditText":"Jacques Demarthon—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2847633/pont-de-arts-bridge-paris/","name":"Love Can Make a Bridge Collapse"}}]}] ```