{"id":9269,"date":"2020-11-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=9269"},"modified":"2020-10-31T20:12:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T03:12:07","slug":"love-locks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/walking\/love-locks\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Locks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Love locks attached to a bridge railing. Forever. That’s the idea. The keys thrown into the bay or taken away. My daughter and I stopped to read the names scratched, engraved or indelibly painted on the padlocks–lovers and spouses, forever faithful. This being a time of pandemic, some of the names were of a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle who had died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chambers Bay Park near Tacoma WA is a scenic spot for professions of undying love. The footbridge the locks are attached to arches over the railroad tracks and down to the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The custom of attaching love locks to a bridge started in Serbia about a hundred years ago. A teacher named Nada fell in love with a Serbian soldier. Before he went off to war, he promised to return to her. Sadly, he found someone else in Greece and never returned. Nada never got over the breakup, and after some time she died of a broken heart. Other young women in her town, wanting to protect their love, attached padlocks on the bridge where Nada and her soldier used to meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My first encounter with love locks was on the bridge that spans the Rio Grande Gorge near Taos, New Mexico. It’s another scenic spot, but one with a disquieting undertone. The few scattered love locks weren’t the most prominent sight on the bridge itself. They were eclipsed by the boxes for the crisis hotline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The bridge is 650 feet above the Rio Grande. New Mexico installed the call boxes to remind people considering suicide that there is help and hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to love locks. During the past twenty years, the custom has spread around the world. It’s a sweet custom, but not everyone is pleased. Some consider it unsightly, an act of vandalism. Sometimes the locks are removed by authorities. What do you think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love locks attached to a bridge railing. Forever. That’s the idea. The keys thrown into the bay or taken away. My daughter and I stopped to read the names scratched, engraved or indelibly painted on the padlocks–lovers and spouses, forever faithful. This being a time of pandemic, some of the names were of a parent, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1040,2012,923,563,1050],"tags":[2091,2090,2092],"class_list":["post-9269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-park","category-people","category-walking","category-washington-state","tag-chambers-bay-park","tag-love-locks","tag-rio-grande-gorge-bridge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-2pv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6244,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/photography\/the-ballard-locks-turns-a-hundred\/","url_meta":{"origin":9269,"position":0},"title":"The Hundredth Anniversary of the Ballard Locks","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"July 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0My sister lives nearby, so I\u2019ve been to the Ballard Locks dozens of times. 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