It's 5 o'clock on a Tuesday morning, and while most University students are nestled snugly in their beds, three early risers are standing on Rug-by Road armed with three paint rollers, a paint brush and two cans of paint.
They are braving the cold to share in a University tradition: painting Beta Bridge.
Constructed in 1855, the paint-battered bridge has witnessed decades of social and political history at the University, and in the last 30 years it has advocated everything from anti-war sentiment to views on the abortion debate.
It is a medium of self-expression, a bold and noticeable means by which anyone can say anything.
It was not until the 1970s that bridge-painting became adopted as a University tradition. Originally, the bridge was known as the "Rugby Road Bridge" and up until the 1950s it was patrolled by Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad officials. Unlawful painters' punishment consisted of cleaning several miles of railroad tracks.
"The painting was done sporadically and not particularly well," recalled University President John T. Casteen III, who completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University between 1965 and 1970.
"My guess is that the frequency and quality improved when the sororities got involved in the late 1970s," Casteen said. "I remember occasional peace signs and general graffiti, but ... nothing as well organized as what happens now."
Beta Bridge has always been "a favorite painting place - that hasn't changed," reflected Stuart Connock, who attended the University as an engineering student from 1971 to 1975. "It was during the peak of the draft for Vietnam," he said, recounting the protest-ridden atmosphere. "There were a lot of things against the war that got painted on there."
Although the Vietnam War controversy is no longer on the lips of college students, the bridge still hosts the messages of those willing to speak their minds.
In January 1999, "a pro-choice organization painted their propaganda on Beta Bridge only to be painted over by pro-life supporters, thus showing that it was the battleground for conflicting social issues," recalled third-year College student Eric Dean Hutter.
Although heated political issues have come and gone throughout the years, the messages on Beta Bridge seem "to follow the political current of the generations," Hutter said.
Many of the messages on the bridge, however, remain much less politically charged.
"The phrasing is often funny, and I have seen messages in foreign languages - not all of them totally conventional in grammar," Casteen recalled of the more light-hearted text which has adorned the bridge during his time as both student and University president.
A few weeks ago, Anna Hiatt, a first-year College student and University Guide, helped decorate the bridge in honor of the new members of the Guide Service.
These messages are still the sources of territorial conflict, Hiatt said.
"Some nights one group gets there before another and begins to paint, only to realize the other group is waiting around to paint over their masterpiece," she said.
"I don't think that there's one organization that will stay up there for more than one day at most," she said. "Ours was painted over the next day."
And who exactly caused the Guides' message to become just another layer of paint?
"We painted over the U-Guides," admitted first-year College student Cara Volpe, whose early-morning advertising benefited the University's Dance Marathon two weeks ago.
The bridge, having witnessed decades of history, is also steeped in conflicting accounts of fraternity lore.
The bridge derives its name from the fraternity Beta Theta Pi, which used to occupy the house that is now inhabited by Delta Upsilon brothers on the east side of the street. According to legend, Betas used flaming arrows to burn down the house of fellow fraternity Delta Upsilon, which was then located in the present Madison House building. In repayment, DU took over the former Beta house and Beta was banished to its current Maury Avenue locale.
But the official story is much less epic.
Newspaper reports from June of 1969 acknowledge Delta Upsilon burning down because of arson, and no connection was ever made between this fire and the Betas, said Robert T. Canevari, a University graduate who was dean of students from 1970 to 1999.
Canevari said Beta moved from its old Rugby Road abode because around 1971, Beta membership severely declined.
"Local alumni shut down the house and put it on the market," he said.
Nonetheless, rumors abound and now, in tribute to Delta Upsilon, late-night painters must write "Thanks DU," usually abbreviated "Thx DU," on each of the bridge's end columns. Supposedly, if omitted, DU brothers will paint over the existing message.
This is the only unofficial rule when it comes to bedecking the bridge, but this is not for lack of trying.
"We also tried to institute bridge painting etiquette - not painting on the road ... leaving people's messages up for a certain period of time," Canevari said, but these suggestions "never did take off" because the bridge is not University property.
Canevari recalls one particularly memorable message painted on the bridge after the 1982 Sigma Chi tragedy, in which two first-year students were killed and many others injured in a car accident.
The message read "Our hearts are with you, Sigma Chi." The message remained up for two or three weeks.
So after 30 years of multiple paintings per week, exactly how thick is the layer of paint on Beta Bridge? According to Canevari, the bridge was sandblasted several times in the late 70s and early 80s, removing about "an inch or so of paint" which had accumulated over the years.
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