Man Camps on Top of D.C. Bridge Overnight. Police Are Still Waiting Him Out.

WASHINGTON — A man who climbed to the top of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Southeast Washington on Friday afternoon was still there Saturday morning, with police negotiators still on the scene.

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed the standoff in a post on X just after 3 p.m. Friday: “MPD is on the scene of a barricade situation involving a subject who walked on top of the Fredrick Douglass Memorial Bridge. MPD’s negotiators are on the scene. Please avoid the area as we work to resolve the incident.” A follow-up post confirmed the situation remained ongoing. MPD had not announced an end to negotiations or any charges as of Saturday morning.

The man identified himself as Guido Reichstadter, a Florida native, in posts made from the top of the bridge’s steel arch. He said the climb was a protest against what he called the Trump administration’s “illegal war on Iran” and a warning about what he described as catastrophic risk from artificial intelligence.

“I call on the governments of the world to take immediate action to end this danger by permanently banning the development of artificial general intelligence and machine superintelligence.”

— Guido Reichstadter, posted on X from atop the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, May 1, 2026

Reichstadter spoke to NewsNation late Friday night from the top of the structure and repeated the same message.

Journalist and documentarian Ford Fischer said Reichstadter had reached out to him before making the climb. Fischer posted video showing the activist barefoot on the arch — he had shed his shoes and socks on the way up — while a police officer below worked a megaphone trying to talk him down, according to Newsweek. Fischer also said that by 5 p.m. Reichstadter had set up a tent on top of the arch and that police had placed snipers on nearby buildings and put a drone in the air. MPD did not confirm either detail.

Fire crews were also called to the scene. NBC4 Washington reported that DC Fire and EMS carried out a high-angle rescue response at the bridge.

Traffic backed up fast. South Capitol Street closed in both directions near the bridge through the heart of the Friday evening commute, with drivers pushed to the 11th Street Bridge or I-695, according to Newsweek. WUSA9 reported that around 7:30 p.m., three outbound lanes and one inbound lane reopened — but Reichstadter stayed put. Rachel Murray, manager of the nearby Atlas Brew Works, told WTOP the closure would “definitely impact foot traffic and customers coming in on a Friday night.”

He Has Done This Before

D.C. police confirmed to WTOP that Reichstadter is the same person who climbed the Frederick Douglass Bridge in June 2022, staying on top for more than 28 hours to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. MPD took him into custody after that demonstration, according to FOX 5 DC.

That earlier climb prompted DDOT to promise security upgrades at the bridge. Four years later, nothing had been installed. A DDOT spokesman told WTOP on Friday that the agency had not acted on those plans because it “couldn’t find anything safe that wouldn’t create issues for the bridge.”

Reichstadter has made AI his primary cause in recent years, according to Newsweek. He co-founded the advocacy group Stop AI and in 2025 staged a hunger strike outside the headquarters of AI company Anthropic to protest the development of artificial general intelligence.

The Wider Context

The protest came as President Donald Trump sent letters to congressional leaders stating he would not seek authorization under the War Powers Act for U.S. military operations in Iran, using a ceasefire declaration to argue the conflict had ended ahead of the law’s 60-day deadline, according to NewsNation. Federal law requires a president to seek congressional approval to extend military action beyond that point.

The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge spans the Anacostia River between Southwest and Southeast Washington. The current structure replaced an older span and opened to traffic in 2021.

This is a developing story.