In many cities in Europe it’s become an asinine tourist tradition for couples to purchase overpriced padlocks, scratch their initials in them, and then attach them to bridges. Not only does this annoying habit visually blight historic architecture,but many of old bridges weren’t built to withstand the weight of so many locks. In 2014 the Des Arts bridge in Paris collapsed from the weight of padlocks people attached to it. It’s now against the law in Paris to put locks on bridges. In the video below, the folks at Honest Guide (A YouTube channel about Prague for tourists) got a bunch of bolt cutters and an angle grinder and went to work removing love locks, inviting others to share in the merriment. While you’re at it, check out their excellent and very helpful series of travel videos on Youtube and maybe buy their new Prague guidebook.
Actually, it was only a section of the wire mesh fence on the Pont des Arts in Paris that collapsed under the weight of the love locks, not the entire bridge. But the damage was bad enough, and the next year a million love-locks, weighing 45 tons, were removed from that same bridge. https://operasandcycling.com/pont-des-arts-without-the-love-locks/