‘Love was in the air’: NH engineers get engaged on bridge they worked on together

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (WHDH) - The New Hampshire Department of Transportation shared a photo of a special moment on their Twitter page.

Daniel Del Tufo and Julia Kallmerten, who worked on the Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth together, recently engaged to be wed in a familiar spot.

Del Tufo got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend of five years on the bridge they worked on together as civil engineers.

“Julia is the most special girl in the world I wanted to do something to make her feel as special as she is,” he said.

The pair met at the University of New Hampshire where both worked on Memorial Bridge projects  — so they say it was only fitting to start this new chapter of their lives on the bridge that connected them in the first place.

“We have been together for five years so I always knew this day would come,” Kallmerten said. “I was not excepting it to come in the way or with the intention that it has.”

Del Tufo wrote the Department of Transportation about his plan and to his surprise, they said: “We do!”

Then, he told Kallmerten he had some work to do on the bridge and stopped to take some photos.

The two engineers rode up onto the bridge in their hard hats and vests, “and we are up there taking pictures and he is like look over here look over there and now stop in the middle for no reason,” Kallmeten recalled. “He was on the ground and I was like what is going on?”

When they reached the highest point, Del Tufo got down on one knee, took out the ring and popped the question.

When they both got down, their families were waiting to congratulate the newly engaged couple.

“I wanted to ask Julia to marry me somewhere we could go back to, somewhere right in our backyard. So, every time we drive over the bridge of how much  I love her and how much she aggravates me,” Del Tufo said.

No wedding arrangements have been made yet, though, the two say they just bought a house together this week.

The photo, captioned “Love was in the air,” showed Dan down on one knee.

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