On a small walkway overlooking the River Walk, passengers boarding river barge tours can look up and see a signal of love; the city’s “Love Lock Bridge.”
San Antonio’s love lock bridge isn’t actually located on the bridge itself — it’s made up of two, 50-foot-long fence walls drilled into the sidewalk.
Just how many locks are on there? The city’s public works department doesn’t know, but there’s a lot.
Locks on the fence contain the names of people who have loved each other; dates of anniversaries, birthdays, even quotes and promises to each other.
But as the years pass and more locks are added, one may start to wonder just how much weight it can handle.
According to the lore, a couple started San Antonio’s love lock bridge in 2012, drawing inspiration from Paris’ Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge, in which couples have long traveled to the “City of Love” for the experience.
Writing your name on a lock and throwing the keys into the Seine symbolized eternal love. It’s said to bring luck to couples who put a lock on the bridge shortly after getting married.
But the love lock bridge hasn’t always lived where it does today on the Kallison Walk Bridge. The original spot was placed on a railway around the corner, next to the Courthouse Wedding Chapel, which is not associated with the locks nor the love lock bridge.
In 2020, the city noticed that the railing began to fall apart, damaging the sidewalk. The city temporarily closed off the area to address needed repairs for safety reasons, but conserved the love locks.
There were talks about making it into an exhibit for everyone to see, said Nick Olivier, spokesman for the city’s public works department.
Ultimately, the city decided to move hundreds of locks to what was supposed to be its temporary location on the Kallison Walk Bridge and the tradition continued.
Public works installed a temporary railing to secure the area where locks were originally placed. In December, new, permanent railings were installed to prevent people from adding locks. And signs were added to discourage the practice.
When it was moved, the city was painstaking in their efforts to make sure all the locks they were moving were accounted for on the fence, Olivier said.
Where the locks are now has become its new permanent home, Olivier said.
In Paris, it’s now illegal to put a lock on the love lock bridge. In 2014, the weight of the locks caused the bridge to collapse.
That likely won’t happen in San Antonio because the locks are attached to a fence, not on the actual structure.
Olivier said the public works department does not know how much weight the standing fence can handle, but they keep it maintained.
The Texas Department of Transportation inspects all Texas bridges every two years, Olivier said, and if there’s an issue affecting the walkway bridge, the agency would bring it to the city’s attention.
