{"id":23734,"date":"2026-05-02T23:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T23:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/23734\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T23:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T23:54:00","slug":"south-capitol-street-reopens-barricade-situation-remains-after-man-scales-frederick-douglass-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/23734\/","title":{"rendered":"South Capitol Street reopens; \u2018barricade situation\u2019 remains after man scales Frederick Douglass Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Capitol Street at the Frederick Douglass Bridge in D.C. has reopened, but authorities continue to monitor a &#8220;barricade situation&#8221; after a person scaled one of the bridge&#8217;s arches Friday.<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/marideth-joy-sandler-bridge-3-1880x1254.jpg\" alt=\"man sets up tent\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              A person on top of the Frederick Douglass Bridge sets up a tent on Friday, May 1, 2026<br \/>\n(Courtesy Marideth Joy Sandler via X)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy Marideth Joy Sandler via X                            <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/marideth-joy-sandler-bridge-1880x1254.jpg\" alt=\"bridge guy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              A person scales the Frederick Douglass Bridge in D.C. on Friday, May 1, 2026.<br \/>\n(Courtesy Marideth Joy Sandler via X)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy Marideth Joy Sandler via X                            <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/BRIDGE-PROTESTER-7NEWS.png\" alt=\"Bridge protester\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              A man scales one of the arches of the Frederick Douglass Bridge in D.C. on Friday, May 1, 2026.<br \/>\n(Courtesy 7News)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy 7News                            <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/marideth-joy-sandler-bridge.-2jpg-1880x1254.jpg\" alt=\"rescue crews\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              Officials are on the scene at the Anacostia River after a person scales the Frederick Douglass Bridge in D.C.<br \/>\n(Courtesy Marideth Joy Sandler via X)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy Marideth Joy Sandler via X                            <\/p>\n<p>South Capitol Street at the Frederick Douglass Bridge in D.C. has reopened, but authorities continue to monitor a \u201cbarricade situation\u201d after a person scaled one of the bridge\u2019s arches Friday.\n<\/p>\n<p>The man remains on top of the bridge as of Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>While all outbound lanes of the bridge have reopened, just one inbound lane is open to traffic.<\/p>\n<p>D.C. Fire and EMS said a high-angle technical rescue team was working with police after the person climbed the bridge Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Marideth Sandler, who lives in Dock 79 near the bridge, described the moment when she realized that someone had climbed the bridge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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\u2019s the police boats,\u201d Sandler said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Florida-based activist Guido Reichstadter posted on X that he walked on top of the bridge around 3:30 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Hi my name is Guido Reichstadter &amp; I\u2019m currently occupying the top of the Frederick Douglass memorial bridge in Washington DC.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m calling on the people of the United States to bring an immediate end to the Trump regime\u2019s illegal war on Iran and the removal of the regime power\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wolflovesmelon\/status\/2050309639875498208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>D.C. police confirmed to WTOP that Reichstadter is the same person who scaled the bridge after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/dc\/2022\/06\/quiet-morning-outside-the-supreme-court-following-long-day-of-abortion-protests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">he last climbed the bridge<\/a>, the District\u2019s Department of Transportation told news outlets that there were plans to install new permanent measures to improve safety and security at the bridge.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, a DDOT spokesman said the agency did not install the measures because \u201cit couldn\u2019t find anything safe that wouldn\u2019t create issues for the bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Below is a map of the area where traffic has been impacted:<\/p>\n<p>WTOP\u2019s Scott Gelman, Abigail Constantino and Ciara Wells contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Stay with WTOP for the latest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up <a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/newsletter-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n<p>            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Capitol Street at the Frederick Douglass Bridge in D.C. has reopened, but authorities continue to monitor a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14591,14592,14593,12392,14594,8,9,7,1622,245],"class_list":{"0":"post-23734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-dc-police","9":"tag-dc-road-closure","10":"tag-dc-traffic","11":"tag-ddot","12":"tag-frederick-douglass-bridge","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-traffic","17":"tag-trump-administration"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116507683319691095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}