Above the beltway, protestors call for fair elections
By Julia Key
If you drove on the beltway under the pedestrian bridge in Annandale near the Audrey Moore Rec Center on Sunday afternoon, you would have seen American flags and signs calling for free and fair elections.
This event, organized by local chapters of Indivisible and members of the Accotink Unitarian Universalist Church, was one of many “Bridge Brigade” actions over the past year and a half protesting the rise of authoritarianism under the Trump administration.
“We hope that people passing on the beltway realize that some of us feel very strongly about this administration, and if they feel the same way, that they are not alone,” said Barbara Silversmith, one of the organizers and a member of the Fairfax chapter of Indivisible. “A lot of times, car honks feel very heartfelt, like they energize us.”
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“Most of the people here are repeaters; they come all the time,” she said. “We do it once or twice a month.”
Over a dozen large American flags and posters with messages like “protect free and fair elections,” “ICE out,” and “defund vanity projects” were wedged between the metal structural beams and the caging of the pedestrian bridge, making them visible to beltway drivers.
The gathering was meant to be peaceful, with participants expected to de-escalate any potential confrontation.
“You’re not going to get anywhere with violence; that’s what the other side wants. They want us to get violent so they can call the National Guard on us,” said Marianne Burke, another event organizer and a member of the Falls Church chapter of Indivisible. “Our protests are absolutely peaceful and joyful, and we have a good time doing it.”
“We call them visibility events because we just want our words to be visible, that we resist,” Burke said. “We get honks as appreciation and we get thumbs up, so we keep going.”
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As cars drove under the bridge, every ten seconds or so, the volunteers got a positive response in the form of a honk or two, a raised fist, or a thumbs up.
“Even though today is not a very busy day, there are six or seven lanes, and if you count ten seconds, about 20 or 25 cars in each direction, that’s 300 unique views a minute,” said Richard Arief, a volunteer from Maryland. “That’s 18,000 unique views for just one hour, and we’ve been out here for two hours.”
Arief goes to protests in different locations, but comes to the Annandale bridge frequently enough to have an idea of which days draw more beltway traffic.
“When I’m out here for an hour, maybe if only half the drivers look up, that’s still 10,000 people for an hour of my time, and I think that’s worth it.”
Julia Key, Annandale Today’s summer intern, is a resident of Burke and a journalism student at Penn State University.