By the time the standoff entered its fourth day, the man occupying the top of an arch of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge seemed less like a distant speck and more like an up-close Rorschach test. To some people watching online and from below his 1,400-foot perch, he was irrational, reckless and looking for attention. To others, he was a hero.
Guido Reichstadter, a 45-year-old who lived in Florida until the past few years, identified himself on X as the man on the bridge. He scaled the curved bridge shortly before 2 p.m. Friday, kicking off his shoes and socks on the ascent for better traction.
“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 through mass nonviolent direct action and non-cooperation,” he wrote on X once he reached the top, where he strapped down a tent and unfurled a long black cloth. He ate food he brought in a backpack.
Over the next 72 hours, he endured nearly 20-mile-per-hour wind, police negotiations via megaphone and, after the Nationals’ loss Friday, booming fireworks that filled the sky. The father of two wore khaki pants and a brown sweater over a T-shirt that read “END WAR.”
“When I’ve asked him these questions out of concern, he acts like I’m the crazy one for asking with worry,” said journalist Ford Fischer, whom Reichstadter called Thursday to document his climb. “He demonstrates an enormous amount of confidence in what he’s doing.”
4K Thread: Anti-war, anti-AI protester Guido Reichstadter scaled an arch of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge this afternoon. Police officers and fire department attempted to talk him down as he climbed the slippery platform, abandoning his shoes and socks along the way. pic.twitter.com/q1JAYcjjsW
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 1, 2026
Reichstadter is no stranger to nonviolent protest. In 2022, he traveled from Miami to D.C. after the Supreme Court’s leaked decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In early June, he tied his neck with a bike lock to the fence of the Supreme Court in protest before police cut him loose and arrested him. He was released with no charges.
Weeks later, he scaled the Frederick Douglass Bridge for the first time and remained there for 24 hours.
“If I can make it to the top of this ever-loving bridge, I know you can make it into the street!” he posted on X at the time. “Let’s shut it down nonviolently day after day after day till our rights are protected. I’ll be up here, much love to you all!”
He dedicated that protest to his daughter.
“I’ve got a 12-year-old daughter, and I can’t just sit back while her future is taken away or all her rights are stripped away,” he told The Washington Post at the time.
Reichstadter moved to San Francisco two years ago and co-founded StopAI, a group that made headlines in November when a member of its defense team served a subpoena to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman while he was onstage at San Francisco’s Sydney Goldstein Theater. (The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.) In September, Reichstadter went on a 30-day hunger strike outside of the San Francisco headquarters of AI company Anthropic.
His most recent bridge protest targets the war in Iran, but he also hopes to spread a message about what he sees as the “existential” danger of artificial intelligence, he said in a video posted on X. On Monday morning, he posted a photo he took of the sunrise over the Anacostia River with the caption: “Good Morning!! End the wars. Stop AI.”
Good Morning!! End the wars Stop AI pic.twitter.com/AA0F0aaiif
— Guido Reichstadter (@wolflovesmelon) May 4, 2026
Fischer, who has documented the scene on X since it started to unfold, said that police arrived when Reichstadter was about halfway to two-thirds of the way to the top of an arch. Since Friday, D.C. police have attempted to persuade Reichstadter to leave the bridge, closing down lanes of traffic and attempting to contact him via Fischer’s phone.
“There’s no reason to send a firefighter to the top when he’s absolutely not suicidal, right?” Fischer said. “He’s not trying to come down unsafely. He’s trying to stay up there until he doesn’t want to anymore, and then his wish is to come down kind of on his own.”
Reichstadter remained, against the odds, remarkably casual in exchanges captured on video and posted to social media. In one, he ends a phone call with an officer with “catch ya later.”
By Monday afternoon, Reichstadter had run out of water and was nearly out of phone battery, Fischer said. But support for his showing remained, among some groups, enthusiastic. Activist group Code Pink, self-described “transnational feminists for peace,” organized an event at the bridge’s south side called “Stand With Guido.”
“WE LOVE GUIDO” chalked onto sidewalks as Guido continues his anti-war demonstration. https://t.co/DFkhA6zABG pic.twitter.com/Y1L2ENz6LQ
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 4, 2026
Around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Reichstadter said on X that he would soon leave the bridge. As of Monday evening, he remained high above the river.
“One man on a bridge is relatively powerless,” he wrote, “but the collective withdrawal of our obedience and support is capable of bringing a swift end to the regime and its wars.”
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