Rome’s Love Locks: Cherished tradition or bridge safety threat?

By Katie-Claire Smith, Reporter

ROME, Ga.– Like many before them, Berry students Brandon Head and Lauren Settoon marked an important moment in their love lives by attaching a lock to the Robert Redden Bridge in downtown Rome.

That “moment” had Head taking a knee to ask Settoon’s hand in marriage.

Brandon Head takes a knee to propose to Lauren Settoon on the Robert Redden Bridge in Rome, Ga.

And it wasn’t the couple’s first lock. They intertwined their “engagement” lock with one they had put on the bridge three years earler, on one of their first dates.

The hundreds, perhaps thousands of locks hanging off of the Rome bridge’s handrails is the subject of debate from an engineering standpoint. Looking at the issue are the Rome Public Works Committee and the city’s Engineering Services Department, according to coverage in the Rome News-Tribune.

And Rome isn’t alone in having this debate. Perhaps the most famous “locks of love” bridge is the Pont de Arts that crosses the Seine river in Paris. The collapse in 2015 of a portion of the Pont de Arts, caused by the weight of thousands of locks, led to their removal and a prohibition on new ones, according to coverage at the time in The Guardian newspaper..

Origins

Deterioration of the Robert Redden bridge due to rust and the weight of the locks are of concern to Rome’s engineering department, according to Serena Tilley, director of the Rome Area History Center.

So, do the locks remain, as symbols of love, or do they have to go to save the bridge?

Locks cover the gridwork on Rome’s most prominent pedestrian bridge.

Built as part of a mainline railway system between Chattanooga, Tenn. and Griffin, Ga., Rome’s bridge has served different purposes over time, tilly said. These days, the bridge is for pedestrians, and it is a favorite spot for couples.

Affixing locks to the bridge as tradition is a “generational thing,” a tradition that began about 20 years ago, Tilly said.

“Everyone thinks it’s sweet, but the engineering standpoint is where it gets tricky,” Tilly said. So far, however, the number of locks and the weight they add “isn’t enough of a concern to cut them off.”

That’s good news for Settoon and Head, who first met in 2021 in their first year at Berry College. They quickly fell in love. On one of their date nights early in the relationship, they found themselves walking along the Redden bridge with a lock of their own. They couldn’t have known then that three years later they would be adding another, this second lock to mark their engagement.

“I like going to fancy restaurants and not paying,” said Settoon, explaining why she said, “Yes,” to that first date. Since then, the two have shared vacations, a dog, and lots of cooking nights.

The last lap

As their senior year approached, with graduation seemingly right around the corner, Head said he figured he would propose just before the start of school upon their arrivals back at Berry.

Head and Settoon, both Berry students, celebrate their engagement.

“The ring was barely delivered on time,” he said. “I got it the day before [the engagement], but I was freaking out that it wouldn’t be here.”

As they walked along the bridge after dinner on the eve of their senior year, they searched for their old lock.

“Lauren spotted it, and right there I got on my knee and pulled out the ring,” said Head, a senior lacrosse player from Charleston, S.C.

Setton, who is from Tampa, Fla., admitted to a bit of “ugly crying” as the emotions flooded in, Head smiling up at her. And while Settoon says she hates surprises, she said she loved this one. While Head had the day planned for some time, and though by Settoon’s account Head’s sisters are “bad liars,” the proposal somehow still came as a surprise.

The wedding will take place in Charleston in late June.

As for the Redden bridge, there are no firm plans to remove the locks. Head’s and Settoon’s locks are safe for the time being.