No love locked: Whitehorse removes lovers' tokens from city bridge
Damage recently caused to Paris bridge because of love locks
On a bridge across the Seine River in Paris, lovers attached locks to the bridge to express their feelings for each other. This spring, part of the bridge's railings collapsed under the weight of all the locks.
The tradition appears to have made its way to Whitehorse. Similar locks are appearing on bridges around the Yukon capital.
Marc Boulerice, parks supervisor with the city, suspects it is tourists who are leaving locks on Whitehorse bridges.
"I was in Iceland recently and I saw it on every tourist location," he said.
But for safety reasons, Boulerice says the locks have to be removed. He says the combined weight of thousands of locks can become too much of a load for a bridge to bear.
"I totally understand the sentiment and in some ways I do feel bad about removing them, but due to the recent collapse of the bridge in Paris, we feel that leaving the locks on encourages others to do that and then, you know, it just escalates to the point where you may have a problem," he said
There are also locks being attached to the fence along the wharf on the Whitehorse riverfront.
Boulerice says that area is the responsibility of the Yukon government, so it will have to decide what to do about those locks.
In Paris, a monument has been erected for people to attach their love locks. Boulerice says there has been no discussion of a similar idea in Whitehorse.