Since I’m always taking photos of those “locks of love” in various cities that we visit, it was a natural to check out the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, which is (in)famous for the number of locks that now adorn it. You’ve actually already seen the bridge in the Cologne “postcard shot” photos that I blogged about a while back.

The Hohenzollern Bridge is a railway bridge across the Rhine River; it also has walkways along both sides of it for use by pedestrians and bicyclists.  Fencing separates the railway tracks from the walkway, and the entire length of the fencing  that runs along the walkway that leads directly to the Cologne Cathedral is completely covered in locks.

Hohenzollern Bridge, “Postcard Shot” angle

Panorama of the Hohenzollern bridge (Looking from the Cathedral side)

Checking out the Locks of Love on Hohenzollern Bridge, Cologne

View of the locks of love seen from behind the fence
(the red blur on the right is a train passing by)

Deutsche Bahn, the company that operates the trains and manages the bridge threatened at one point to remove all the locks from the bridge, but there was such an outcry that they dropped that plan. Or, as this article puts it,  Deutsche Bahn had a change of heart about the plan…

Anyway, that was a few years ago, and today at a casual glance it looks like there isn’t any space left along the walkway on that side of the bridge.

Locks of Love on Hohenzollern Bridge, Cologne

Although a few enterprising lovers have started putting locks on the walkway over on the railing on the right, the real place that has started to fill up is along the walkway on the on the other side of the bridge.  While that side has a bunch now, it’s not nearly as crowded. At least not yet.

Walkway on the “other side” of Hohenzollern Bridge

Even without tilting the camera, examining a few of the individual locks can give a whole new perspective on this love tradition, something that’s made possible by the locks not being so crowded together. We’ll take a look at some of these locks,  and theorize about possible stories behind them, in Locking for Love in Cologne – Part 2.

Stay tuned…