Love Bridge Da Nang

Names carved in a hurry onto small locks. That is what this bridge is about. The city has other famous bridges, but this one is not known for engineering feats or record lengths. What it has instead is those small locks, and the glittering Hàn River below them.

The Love Bridge stands right beside DHC Marina, a harbor for pleasure boats on the east bank of the Hàn River. Look upstream from the bridge and you see the statue of a carp turning into a dragon, rising from the water. The carp is a symbol of Da Nang. It carries a folk tale about patience and courage, about a fish that climbs the waterfalls to become a dragon.

This is a footbridge, made only for people on foot. There are no vehicles and no horns. There are only footsteps, the wind off the river, and thousands of love locks hanging along the railings.

The custom of the love lock goes like this. A couple buys a lock, carves both their names on it, and hooks it onto the railing of the bridge. Then they throw the key into the river. The meaning is that the love is locked away. The key is gone, so no one can ever open it again. Here, people of the city and visitors alike keep a memory in this way, one that is romantic and a little funny at once.

Late afternoon is when the bridge looks its best. The last sunlight spreads gold across the river. Locks of every color, in all kinds of odd shapes, catch the light and sparkle along both railings. Far off, the Dragon Bridge and the Hàn River Bridge appear faintly in the haze rising from the water.

This is the most youthful and graceful corner of Da Nang. It asks for no knowledge of history or architecture. What remains is the river to look at, the wind, and the sound of water running below.

Toward evening on the Hàn River there is a light wind, and the faint slap of water against a distant bank. Right overhead hangs a whole forest of small locks, and the promises that no one can open anymore.