'I Refuse to Be Complicit': Man Scales 168-Foot Bridge in DC Demanding End to Iran War

I think there are many millions of Americans who reject the war in principle, but whose actions have not yet been sufficient to bring it to an end.In a separate video, he explained he was at the top of the bridge, which rises approximately 168 feet above the Anacostia River at its highest point, because the government of the United States is engaged in acts of mass murder in my name. And I refuse to be complicit in that.While bridge traffic in both directions was closed at times on Friday and overnight, the bridge is reportedly open to traffic Saturday morning, though with some lane restrictions, as law enforcement said a barricade situation with the protester continued.Reichstadter, who has staged high-profile protests in the past, spoke to Al-Jazeera via video stream on Friday to explain his actions and call for an end to the war that he says—and tens of millions of other Americans agree, according to polling—is a colossal failure by the Trump administration.A 45-year old man is occupying the top of Washington’s Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge to protest the war on Iran. Guido Reichstadter spoke to Al Jazeera from atop the structure - here's what he had to say. pic.twitter.com/YzHghEoS8m— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 2, 2026I mean, it's an atrocity, right? he said, when asked what motivated him. I woke up on February 28th and I found that hundreds of schools children had been blown apart. I think there are many millions of Americans who reject the war in principle, but whose actions have not yet been sufficient to bring it to an end.Democratic members of Congress, both in the US House and Senate, have now brought several War Powers Resolutions to the floor in an effort to end the US attack on Iran, which now includes a naval blockade of the country, but Republican majorities in both chambers backing Trump, those efforts have failed. Poll after poll, meanwhile, shows that Reichstadter is completely correct in stating that millions of people reject the war, but still the war continues even after a 60-day deadline, according to the War Powers Act of 1973, which says the president must either end military operations or get the explicit approval of Congress, came and went on Friday.On Friday, video showed Reichstadter wearing a t-shirt that read NO WAR and he unfurled a large black banner down the side of the bridge's central arch as part of the protest.Before scaling the bridge, Reichstadter also spoke with journalist Ford Fisher to explain his motivations and what he hoped to accomplish with his one-person direct action:Guido Reichstadter reached out to me prior to doing this demonstration (where he is still on the bridge arch now). He expressed his opposition to the Trump administration’s war in Iran.He did the same for abortion access in 2022.https://t.co/b7iM0eZlHL pic.twitter.com/AzlFgjRysX— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 1, 2026Reichstatder stayed on the bring overnight, even as fireworks exploded overhead from a nearby Major League Baseball game. In his statement concerning AI, Reichstadter said he wanted to urgently warn the people of the US and the world of the imminent danger we are in of crossing a point of no return towards the development of artificial intelligence which poses the risk of catastrophic harm to humanity, including human extinction.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 super intelligence, he said. I also call on the people of the world to exert all possible influence through nonviolent action to compel their governments to end this danger with all possible speed.