Skip to main content

South Capitol Street reopens; ‘barricade situation’ remains after man scales Frederick Douglass Bridge

By LaDawn Black

South Capitol Street at the Frederick Douglass Bridge in D.C. has reopened, but authorities continue to monitor a “barricade situation” after a person scaled one of the bridge’s arches Friday. The man remains on top of the bridge as of Saturday. While all outbound lanes of the bridge have reopened, just one inbound lane is open to traffic. D.C. Fire and EMS said a high-angle technical rescue team was working with police after the person climbed the bridge Friday afternoon. The activity had closed South Capitol Street both ways, leading to significant traffic impacts to the afternoon rush and a baseball game at nearby Nationals Park. Authorities urged drivers to stay away from the area. Marideth Sandler, who lives in Dock 79 near the bridge, described the moment when she realized that someone had climbed the bridge. “I look out the window quite a bit. And I happened to see the traffic on the other side stopped by a bunch of fire engines. And then I started to look closer, and looked up and saw this long, black ribbon flowing in the breeze. And then I looked down, and there’s the police boats,” Sandler said. “I then looked up and saw next to the light, this extra thing, so I grabbed my long lens and found that it was a man up there.” Florida-based activist Guido Reichstadter posted on X that he walked on top of the bridge around 3:30 p.m. Friday.

D.C. police confirmed to WTOP that Reichstadter is the same person who scaled the bridge after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. After he last climbed the bridge, the District’s Department of Transportation told news outlets that there were plans to install new permanent measures to improve safety and security at the bridge. On Friday, a DDOT spokesman said the agency did not install the measures because “it couldn’t find anything safe that wouldn’t create issues for the bridge.” Below is a map of the area where traffic has been impacted:

WTOP’s Scott Gelman, Abigail Constantino and Ciara Wells contributed to this report.

America 250: The creation of Amtrak

By the late 1950s, America was moving faster than ever. Interstate highways were spreading across the country, jet aircraft were carrying passengers coast to coast in a matter of hours, and the railroads that once dominated long-distance travel were struggling to survive. The passenger trains that moved millions of Americans in the first half of the 20th century — and carried troops across the nation during World War II — were rapidly losing riders.
Read Next Story