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Reno saying goodbye to landmark 'Wedding Ring Bridge'

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Crews work on Virginia Street Bridge in downtown Reno. Photo: AP

Reno is bidding a bittersweet farewell to an iconic 110-year-old bridge made famous by newly divorced women - and a Marilyn Monroe character - who walked from the courthouse to cast their past and their wedding rings in the river below.

The "Wedding Ring Bridge", also known as the "Bridge of Sighs", became a symbol of Reno as the "Divorce Capital of the World" until other states relaxed their divorce laws in the 1960s.

The legend of divorced women walking a block from the Washoe County courthouse to the bridge over the Truckee River dates to the 1920s.

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Photographs, postcards and Hollywood movies depict the scenes - the most famous with Monroe in the 1961 film The Misfits. Major demolition work is scheduled for the bridge, which will be replaced by a span critical for flood control.

Historic preservationists had been pushing for its protection even before its addition to the US National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

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Ten years ago, they celebrated its 100th anniversary with a re-enactment, tying ribbons to plastic rings and throwing them over the side.

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