Graffiti On 495 Railroad Bridge Takes Political Turn Again
“Surrender Donald” is the latest form of the graffiti that can be found on the railroad bridge that crosses 495– a play on the old “Surrender Dorothy” graffiti that has etched its name into Montgomery County history.
The graffiti started as wadded up newspapers spelling the words “Surrender Dorothy” by a few young ladies from Holy Child’s graduating classes of 1973-76 who wanted to get the word out about their Wizard of Oz school play that was coming up a few weeks later.
That only lasted about 24 hours, but became a little more permanent in the mid-80s when the phrase was spray painted onto the bridge.
There have been different variations of ‘Surrender Dorothy’ written on the bridge through the years. There are also many rumors as to who the artist behind the longer lasting version was, but never any confirmation.
A few years back, a new message was posted. The word Fugazi on one side with “crot” and “voyer” on the other. Fugazi was a local punk-rock band, but they had not played a show in over a decade when the graffiti appeared around 2014. There are rumors that Crot and Voyer are the names of a couple taggers that were tagging things in very visible places around the D.C. area, but that has not been confirmed either.
In February of 2017 the graffiti took a political turn when the message read “Bridges not walls.” That one didn’t last long either, as it was painted over just a few days later.
In 2018 a liberal political action committee posted magnetic letters spelling the words “Surrender Donald,” the words that now appear on the bridge.
Featured photo by Liz Peterson
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1 comment
You’re leaving out the whole point of the “Dorothy” graffiti. As you drove up to it on 495, the Mormon Temple came into view and for a few seconds as you passed under the bridge, the words appeared over the temple just like the witch’s message over Emerald City. It was brilliant.