Reports that a Paris bridge “collapsed” due to the weight of thousands of padlocks placed by lovesick tourists have been wildly over-exaggerated. A bridge did not “collapse”. Not even “partially”. In fact, there are people walking over the “collapsed” bridge right now.
Indeed, local residents complained a few weeks ago about the exceptionally high number of padlocks affixed to the Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine, claiming that they were messing with the bridge’s appearance and could potentially hurt its historic detail. But if you believe many major news outlets, on Sunday, those locks brought down the bridge. Which did not happen.
Ready to see the collapsed bridge?
Plombé par les “cadenas d’amour”, le Pont des Arts est de nouveau ouvert http://t.co/MOXMvs1mPV pic.twitter.com/V1kTfPW5XD
— Culturebox (@Culturebox) June 9, 2014
No, not even the railing collapsed, which you can see completely intact here. What “collapsed” was the chain-link-esque fencing that is attached to the bridge itself, where people love to lock their love locks. You can see that fence here:
A more appropriate way to describe it: A non-structural part of a Paris bridge — a part which has nothing to do with its integrity to keep people walking over a river from getting wet or drowning — sagged. Not only that, but this happens quite often, causing workers to replace the panels with fresh chain link and new promises of endless love on a regular basis.
Luckily, Paris officials were able to work throughout the night to repair the bridge collapse:
Horteras del mundo: al final os habéis cargado el puente con tanta chorrada http://t.co/iqM6dcXxIF pic.twitter.com/SoRVNgsUcr
— Bárbara Ayuso (@Barbaraayuso) June 9, 2014
I dunno, it looks like they got it under control. The bridge reopened today. [Mashable]
Pictures: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images