There are 3 arches to the bridge and in each section there are 100 sections. Love locks are on both sides and in each section there are, as a conservative estimate, 900 love padlocks.
A rough calculation comes up with 630,000 padlocks!! If each padlock weighs an average of 75g then the total weight of all the padlocks is 47.4 tons! That’s 2/3 the weight of the space shuttle.
The authorities have not removed them because the trains weigh more than 400 tons plus that would undermine the excellence of German engineering. Also, the Germans blew up their own bridge during WW2 to stop the Allies entering Köln so they believe the bridge will survive now forever…with or without the locks.
