When Bentonville's parks operations manager Crant Osborne saw the first padlocks appear on the bridge near the Bella Vista Dam, he wasn't sure why they had been put there. But then he saw the same phenomenon in Missoula, Mont., and Googled "Love Locks."
"That was a fad going all across the nation," he said. "It's got something to do with a couple doing a vow to love forever."
While he doesn't encourage people to add locks to the Parks Department's bridge, he hasn't cut them off either. As long as the locks don't cause any problems, they will probably remain on the bridge.
Several Bella Vista residents have seen the tradition in other countries, including Jo Lowery, who explained, "The Pont des Arts is one of the 37 bridges that cross the Seine River in Paris. It was the 'Love Locks Bridge' though many other bridges had locks attached to them. In 2015, the locks were cut off because the bridge was in danger of falling into the river due to the sheer weight of the thousands of locks!"
Community on 02/14/2018