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The Lock Trees
On The Kissing Bridge

One day, who knows when, a newlywed couple sealed their vows by placing a padlock on the rail of the Luzhkov Bridge that spans a canal of the Moscow River in the center of the city. Then they threw the key into the water, symbolizing the permanence of their union. If either of them ever wished to end the marriage, they would have to dive into the freezing cold and extremely polluted water to retrieve the key to the lock.

Moscow is a city where weddings are usually big splashy affairs with stretch limos, colorful tuxedos, gallons of champagne and overt ceremonies. The story of what the young couple did spread like wildfire, and soon, the bridge railings were covered with hundreds of locks.

But the city administration decided that a bridge covered padlocks was not beautiful, certainly not good for tourism, so they decided to put a stop to it. They cut all the padlocks off the railings, put up signs, and forbade couples from putting more padlocks on it.

But there isn't a lot of controls anyone can have over young people in love. Besides, Russians are raised on folklore and fairytales, and once the romantic fad had started, there was no stopping it. All attempts at stopping newlyweds from putting the locks on the bridge failed.

Then it is rumored that a city official noticed that the divorce rate in Moscow actually declined when the fad started, and rose again once it had been stopped. True or not, there was nothing the city could do but allow the locks on the bridge again. But this time, they had a more aesthetically pleasing and tourist-friendly idea.


^{The Lock Tree}

They put up a metallic tree-shaped frame for the locks to be placed on. Soon, the tree was full to overflowing with padlocks of every shape and size. And, the locks kept arriving, wedding ceremony after ceremony, as more and more newlyweds bound their fresh vows of the permanence of their love.



Locks began to be placed onto other locks because the tree's metal framework was no longer reachable. The couples wrote their names and vows on the locks, just to solidify the fact that it was they who had made the vow. Heart-shaped locks, such as the red one, above, with the names "Kabel + Irena" and the square black one above, saying "Sveta i Kostya".


<sup>And every day, more and more were added

So the city had no choice... they built a second tree -
which quickly filled with locks.

So they installed six trees - which filled with locks.

And today, they are still adding trees.</sup>

The moral of this story is:
One should never underestimate the power of love.



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Moscow Russia Insiders Guide
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