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.
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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.
Hi my name is Guido Reichstadter & I’m currently occupying the top of the Frederick Douglass memorial bridge in Washington DC.
I’m calling on the people of the United States to bring an immediate end to the Trump regime’s illegal war on Iran and the removal of the regime power…
— Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon) May 1, 2026
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:
[google_map latitude=”38.868636711989915″ longitude=”-77.00556908306982″ zoom=”13″ height=”300px” location_label=”Frederick Douglass Bridge” dynamic_map=”true”]
WTOP’s Scott Gelman, Abigail Constantino and Ciara Wells contributed to this report.
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