Transforming an iron bridge with ‘love padlocks’

Straddling the Main River in Frankfurt is the Eiserner Steg iron footbridge, one of the city’s landmarks. Constructed completely from iron, the bridge has stood for over one hundred years, witness to untold numbers of changes in the city and the landscape surrounding it.

Stepping onto the bridge, however, it was not history, architectural style nor panoramic scenery that intrigued me, but rather the tiny little things that are affixed to the railings – the love padlocks. Over the years, it has become a worldwide custom by which loving couples attach a padlock – usually inscribed with their names or initials – onto bridge railings, fences or poles in the public area and then throw away the key, to ‘lock’ in their union and to symbolise their everlasting love for each other.

Fascinated by the custom, I turned to Google for further enlightenment and found some interesting images on the internet: strings of padlocks alongside the Great Wall, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; hundreds, or even thousands, of padlocks affixed to fences all over the world; a lamp post overloaded with padlocks that has taken on a peculiar form; and ‘padlock trees’ in which the padlocks actually become the leaves on the branches.

I don’t know if you can describe these creations as works of art, but they are, to me, both artistic and interesting. These love padlocks irrevocably alter the form of their ‘host’ and eventually transform the cityscape over time, providing a ‘wow’ factor and food for thought – the sheer number of them, the stories behind them, their power to affect a place not just visually, but emotionally, too. These tiny little things, via the hands of many different people, alter a place bit by bit.

With a smattering of love padlocks – maybe fewer than a hundred – affixed to the railings of Frankfurt’s Eiserner Steg, this phenomenon has apparently only just taken off here. It made me wonder what this place would look like on my next visit here (which probably won’t be for another few years!). No doubt, of course, that whatever transformation takes place will take me by surprise.

For more intriguing photos of love padlocks check out this website:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1176401