Love locks unwelcome on greenways' historic bridge
Graffiti, padlocks creeping onto bridge linking trails over White River
MUNCIE — Love locks and graffiti are starting to appear on the historic bridge installed over White River at the $10-million Kitselman Trailhead and Park less than a year ago.
No doubt graffiti is illegal on the early 20th-century restored structure linking the Cardinal and White River greenways on the east side of Muncie.
But what about the love locks, aka love padlocks, which are attached to the railings of bridges to demonstrate unbreakable or everlasting love between couples?
Those started becoming popular on bridges around the world 20 years or so ago but are now more likely to be viewed as graffiti or vandalism.
“They are not permitted and they will be periodically removed,” Angie Pool, CEO of Cardinal Greenway, Inc., told me, without elaboration, after consulting her board of directors.
The greenway organization already has initiated a graffiti-removal program at the bridge, realizing that quick action sends an important message.
There are just 10 love locks on the bridge so far (as of September 15). Someone named “Tater” has been the object of affection on two locks: “Ma’am Loves Tater” and “Tater Baby.” But not all of the locks are romantic, either. “Ass Heaven,” one reads.
Elsewhere around the world, including Paris, love locks have been removed and banned. Keys thrown into rivers after the locks are secured onto bridges are causing pollution and harm to wildlife. The locks also obscure views and can put too much stress on some bridges — tons in some cases.
Pool has called Kitselman Trailhead and Park "the most majestic" trailhead on the Cardinal Greenway, which runs 62 miles between Marion, Muncie and Richmond. The Kitselman bridge, which cost nearly a fifth of the $10-million project, is the trailhead’s "crown jewel," Pool said last year.
A 175-foot-long structure built around 1900, the bridge is a "camelback" type truss/girder system whose superstructure chords rise above the roadway and connect to each other —cross-braced above the traffic.
It used to carry cars over over the Mississinewa River near Albany. Now it carries pedestrians, strollers and bicyclists over the White River between two trails that run along opposite sides of the river.
It cost more than $1 million to construct the bridge’s supports, ramps and trail connections, not to mention the cost to take down, repair, reassemble, repaint and install the structure.
The trailhead/park remains unfinished, including a “plateau park” that slopes upward for a view above the west side of the river; a totem sign bearing the names of the two greenways; and a horizontal Muncie sign. The east side of the river includes parking and a grand lawn sloping down to the river.
Two dams have been removed downstream of the trailhead/park to encourage kayaking, canoeing, fishing, tubing and other recreation.
(Watch a video of the bridge’s ribbon-cutting ceremony below).