Could Nigeria have a Pont Des Arts

Yes yes I know, Nigeria isn’t exactly known as the city of love like Paris, but the recent taking down of the Pont Des Arts aka The Love Lock Bridge got me thinking. Could we have one in Nigeria? Hence this quick and brief post. Kanye West did say to keep our love locked down.

And then I thought, would a love lock bridge work in Nigeria? Would people come from all over to take pictures and put their own locks on our bridge?

What if you were crossing the Niger bridge on your way to the East, and you saw a bunch of padlocks on it, or the pedestrian bridge in Apongbon.

Could the Galdima Pedestrian Bridge in Abuja pull it of? Would Nigerians be open to the idea of engraving their initials to a padlock or a metal bridge, or would we be our usual superstitious selves and say things like ‘you went and padlocked your name somewhere, someone will go and steal your destiny from that bridge’ or ‘that’s how they’ll break the padlock and your family will scatter’.

I mean my bridge of choice would be the Niger Bridge. There’s just something about it, especially because it connects the southeast and the west. Or maybe Third Mainland Bridge would be best because you could just toss the keys away into the Lagoon, plus what’s better than the locks being on the 2nd longest bridge in Africa?

Whatever the case, the bridge picked would have to be a sturdy one that can accommodate the weight if Nigerians were to welcome this tradition.

The Pont Des Arts became famous in 2008 when people decided to engrave their loved ones initials and theirs, locking it on the railing of the bridge and throwing away the key to signify commitment. If you went to Paris, you simply had to do it. Trend took off that, over 700,000 padlocks were put there and now Parisians are calling it an eyesore. This led to them taking it down this week.

It’s amusing and interesting to note that other countries also replicated this and have their own versions of the love lock bridge eg Russia, China, Italy, Amsterdam, New York etc In fact Russia decided instead of the bridge, they would make metal trees along the bridge, and people could put the padlocks there instead.

Shame it’s being taken down, but I trust the French people to find a new way to publicly display their love.

You can see some other love lock bridges below.