Guido Reichstadter never expected to find himself atop the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge again. Earlier this month, the 45-year-old former jeweler-turned-activist from Florida spent five days suspended above South Capitol Street protesting the war in Iran and the rise of AI. Now known online si mply as DC’s “Bridge Guy,” Reichstadter documented nearly every moment online, posting updates to X, giving interviews from the steel beams overhead, and quickly becoming one of the city’s most surreal viral figures in recent memory. I will soon be leaving the bridge. I want to give heartfelt thanks for all the outpouring of support. My purpose here has been to fulfill my duty to the truth- to call on the people of this country to recognize and exercise the revolutionary power within us- the power of… — Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon) May 4, 2026 But for Reichstadter, the protest wasn’t intended as performance art or internet spectacle. He tells Washingtonian the climb was an act of nonviolent direct action—one he hoped would draw attention to both escalating conflict abroad and what he views as the unchecked dangers of AI development. “I just felt something in my heart moved me to get up there,” he says. “Both to warn society about the danger from AI and to uphold the fact that we don’t have to let this war continue. It only continues through passive acceptance—through complicity from all of us who sit on the sidelines and watch.” Reichstadter argues that collective nonviolent resistance still has the power to stop both war and technological expansion. “The truth is, we have the power to end it,” he says. “The question is whether we have the courage.” When asked where that courage comes from, Reichstadter insists he’s never been particularly afraid of heights. This month’s protest also wasn’t his first time climbing the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge. In 2022, after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade leaked, Reichstadter scaled the bridge in protest and remained there for a little over a day. This time, he says, the climb was not premeditated but instead an emotional reaction after attending Senator Bernie Sanders’s Capitol Hill event on what Sanders described as the “existential threat” posed by artificial intelligence and the need for international cooperation with China. Reichstadter says local community leaders eventually convinced him to come down during the 2022 protest after warning him that he had “really fucked up the traffic.” (This year’s ascent also impacted traffic—according to WTOP, authorities shut the bridge down both on the day he climbed up and the day he came down.) “It technically wasn’t very difficult,” Reichstadter says of his recent climb. Near the top, where the bridge narrows, he says he had to “bald eagle” his feet along the steel rim while inching forward above the Anacostia. At one point, he even ditched his shoes entirely for better grip, spending the rest of the climb barefoot against the metal beams. In addition to a wordless black banner he unfurled atop the bridge, Reichstadter brought a small tent, which he says doubled as a makeshift sleeping bag during the cold nights above the Anacostia. Sleep, however, was limited. He survived mostly on dried cranberries, pretzels, and a limited supply of water that, according to him, ran out quickly. To manage basic necessities while suspended above the bridge, Reichstadter says he used trash bags as makeshift toilets and empty water bottles to urinate in. Still, Reichstadter says he was already accustomed to enduring physical discomfort for political protest after participating in a 30-day hunger strike outside Anthropic’s San Francisco headquarters last year. “I was supposed to appear in court [on May 5] for the AI actions I took [in San Francisco,]” he says with a laugh. “But I was on the bridge. I didn’t quite make it.” By the morning of Wednesday, May 6, conditions atop the bridge had deteriorated. Heavy rain and strong winds, Reichstadter says, forced him to come down earlier than planned. “I actually was trying to hang out a little longer because I had an invitation to interview with Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!” he says. “But the weather and the wind were so strong we just couldn’t get any usable audio out of it. I decided to come down around 8 or 9 in the morning.” After scaling back down, Reichstadter says police were immediately concerned about his physical condition and transported him to a local hospital for evaluation before he spent the following day in jail. There, after days surviving on only snacks, Reichstadter says he eagerly accepted as many bologna sandwiches from officers as he could get. In addition to the charges he already faces in San Francisco—which he says he plans to address this week after warrants were issued related to previous AI protests—Reichstadter now faces a federal unlawful entry charge as well as a DC charge for failure to obey police orders. Reichstadter acknowledges the legal battles ahead could pull him out of public view for some time. Still, he says he’s been overwhelmed by the support he’s received since coming down from the bridge. “To hear people’s messages saying that this has encouraged them is really great. That’s the point,” Reichstadter says. “Obviously, the underlying problem is still there. The war is still going on. The regime is still in power. AI is still full speed ahead. So the next step is organizing actual mass action.” Beyond his upcoming June 11 hearing in DC, Reichstadter says he plans to permanently relocate to the area to continue community organizing and activism—though likely not from atop another bridge anytime soon. “I did get barred from within 100 yards of the bridge,” he says with a laugh. “So I can’t go climbing without getting in trouble.”The post DC’s “Bridge Guy” Speaks! first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less