In Paris, city officials have started removing off love locks from the city's main bridge, Pont des Arts, one of the tourist attractions among lovers in France.
According to BBC, Pont des Arts is the first iron bridge that was built in France. It opened as a toll foot bridge in 1804, and was rebuilt in 1984, after it collapsed in 1979.
Just last year, a part of the bridge railings collapsed because of the accumulated weight of almost a million love locks that tourists around the world hooked. Officials have started detaching metal pieces weighing a total of 45 tons on Monday morning.
As a tradition, couples would write their initials on the padlocks, hang it on the bridge railing, and throw the keys into the River Seine as a symbol of binding love. The officials have previously tried encouraging selfies instead, but the love lock tradition still went on.
The love lock tradition is traced back to a tragic story told 100 years ago, in Serbia during World War 1. A local named Nada falls in love with Relja, a military officer and started meeting him at the Most Ljubavi, the Bridge of Love.
They professed their love for each other, but Relja had to leave for a war in Greece. Relja then met a native named Corfu, fell in love with her, and broke his engagement with Nada. Devastated, Nada died because of heartbreak.
This story inspired the local young women in Vrujacka Banja to protect their own romances, by starting the tradition of writing their names on padlocks and attaching it on the bridge of love railings.
International Business Times reports that tourists in Paris started hanging love locks in 2008.
Love locks are also famous in Venice's Rialto Bridge and New York's Brooklin Bridge. For France however, it's finally over.
"It's the end of the padlocks," Paris deputy mayor, Bruno Julliard tells BBC. "They spoil the aesthetics of the bridge, are structurally bad for it and can cause accidents."
Hopeless romantics all over the world have been saddened by this news.
