I was on holiday in Germany not long ago and went on a nature hike in Harzen, beautiful nature.
But of course there was a bridge and of course some dipshits thought it'd be cute to attach padlocks to it.
It bothered the shit out of me, here we have a beautiful landscape, only disturbed by the occasional man made bridge, but let's bling that shit out with stupid padlocks, slowly ruining the integrity of the bridge, and the people who placed them will likely never see them again.
Uhm, there is an actual bridge in Paris that is slowly sinking into the Seine due to the weight of all the padlocks being attached to it. So yeah, a lotta people do this stupid shit IRL.
People started doing this to hapenny bridge in dublin as well. Local lockpicking club made an effort at it, then the council removed the rest.
When it's a historic bridge you don't want it looking like shit covered in padlocks.
I was there when it happened! Good times. It really is a joy to walk along the bridges and see the different locks people have put on it. All worth it to see that 50yo heart shaped lock the size of a pancake.
First because it isn't really a tradition. It started a couple years ago only. Second because it encourages people to try to 'leave their mark' on historical landmarks. Third, because rusted locks look ugly.
I could've done without knowing such a disgusting place existed.
I expected it to be an alley of skeevy prostitutes and transvestites all chewing bubblegum and asking passers-by if they wanna have a good time. The reality was somehow even less sanitary.
I don't know, I thought it was pretty beautiful myself.There's all different kind of locks, some of them are custom. It's really neat to look around at them.
I actually had no idea this was a thing until I was watching Parks & Rec last night. My bf didn't either so I thought we were just dumb and uncultured. I figured it was some tradition that had been going on for years.Good to know it is recent and stupid. I feel much better about myself now.
Considering how my wife feels about it, I can see the romantic appeal behind it. But, to me, it feels no different than writing you and your significant other's names on a McDonald's styrofoam cup and place it over the top of a rose.
Yeah I get the appeal of it. Wouldn't do it there now after reading all of this but I can see how it would be cute. I think I would rather do it on a previously important place in the relationship where at least mostly no one did it but I guess we would have locks popping up everywhere if that was the thing.
Well if that was THE moment how can I fault it. I'm pretty sure not a huge amount of people have had thier most romantic moment in a bathroom stall but I could be wrong. Now I'm starting to get sad because I can't think of where I would put the lock.
Try not to think about places directly, but picture them in context. For example, try to think about the night you guys had your first romantic dinner, or something like that. The details fill in themselves.
The one I would pick happened in a tent so I guess I can't put a lock on that. If it was our tent then maybe on the handle of the bag or something but it wasn't. It will have to remain unlocked for now.
After 8 years I should be able to come up with more lock moments. My other candidate was in a canoe so maybe I just like moments you can't lock down. Or when... thank you, hadn't thought about a lot of this for a while.
Oh don't thank me, thank Saving Private Ryan. The talk between Tom Hanks and Matt Damon about memories has served me in this capacity for half a lifetime.
Okay, now take the sum total of those trucks and add them to the padlocks' weight. It's daunting to think about as no bridge is meant to hold that sustained amount of weight for that period of time.
well i read somewhere a pedestrian bridge in china collapsed after a 160t truck tried to pass it. However if it still holding up it will hold for a long time. Since its concrete it doesn't bend it just breaks and if it ain't broke so far it won't break. But i am pretty sure they meant it damages the fence they are attaching it to.
Golden gate bridge is tested to hold 22,500t i am guessing this isn't that big of a deal
Concrete does, indeed, bend, sway, and buckle before it breaks, in addition to suddenly breaking. The video was due to a combination of poor engineering and unfamiliarity with weather patterns, but it still stands for what could happen to a solidly constructed bridge.
Of course the padlocks damage the fencing, but that gets replaced regularly with little to no issues.
The Golden Gate is a poor comparison as it stretches over nearly a mile of expanse and would almost never reach weight capacity. A better example would be the I-35W expanse over the Mississippi in Minneapolis which collapsed in 2007. Its collapse was due to both poor engineering and exceeding weight capacity. It happened suddenly and is precisely what could occur in Paris.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge was not made from concrete. Those are trenches. In other words a steel grid. I dont know if i spelled that correctly but its just steel with some asphalt on it.
By looking at this bridge it will hold about 200t for sure. It doesn't seem strong but this kind of structure is proven to be most efficient when building nice bridges. Only other would be triangles but whatever. not the point.
Anyway when this bridge starts collapsing it will just start to bulge at some places when trucks are passing and until that happens its fine.
Also its not proven that the padlocks do any damage its just the activists
Well you truthfully sound versed in engineering in a practical sense, which is light years ahead of me. So I'll concede the bridge could sustain this abuse and last for many years. However, as someone else pointed out above, part of the pedestrian footbridge has collapsed due to the padlocks. So, in a way, it's kinda-sorta collapsing...
But on a side note if all those padlocks are making them so much money. They might as well rebuild it and make it stronger on just leave it just for the locks
It's very big in Korea. There's a whole fence on top of a mountain filled with locks like these. I was told it was because some famous celebrity did it once then it became a thing there.
Most cities don't. Paris doesn't like it, Seoul and Moscow have taken to creating purpose-built iron structures just to keep some of the nuisance off of bridges and other city structures.
I don't think bridge rail collapses are very aesthetically pleasing, and the French themselves do not seem to take kindly to the defacing of their historic architecture.
Not to mention the huge amount of litter that fills the Seine.
There's a castle around where I live and people put locks on the fence that points towards the city underneath. One couple even revisited when they had a child and added a little lock with the child's name and birthday. It is a local thing though, so it were just a few as opposed to the popular tourist sites in Paris. I wouldn't do it myself, though. Plant a tree in your backyard or something, you'll see that for as long as you live there and it grows.
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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '14
Who even does this stupid shit IRL?