In Charlottesville, VA there is a short stretch of Rugby Road known as Beta Bridge that spans the train tracks. Here it is in a satellite image taken from space:
Beta Bridge on Google Maps
The thing that makes this bridge special is the tradition carried on by UVA students, who paint it with announcements, event advertisements, birthday wishes, or whatever they want. The tradition is so popular that new paintings are made on top of the old almost daily. Since I pass by the bridge most days, I decided in 2009 to try to take pictures of Beta Bridge and post them on here…almost daily.
Sometimes interesting things happen, and sometimes it’s pretty mundane. Here’s a picture of when a UVA bus ran into the bridge:
The northwest column of Beta Bridge is removed by a front end loader after being hit by a UVA bus.
Sometimes when the bridge hasn’t been repainted in a while and I still want a picture, I will check out some other detail like the back side:
West side of the bridge, facing out toward the tracks.
At the very least, I try to take pictures every time the front sides (facing in towards Rugby Rd.) change. I am out of town most weekends, so it’s generally a middle-of-the-week thing. If you have any questions or suggestions, let me know!
Beta Bridge (almost) daily 
I love this project! What kind of camera/lens are you using?
Thanks! My camera is a Canon T1i and the lens varies, but most of the pictures are taken with a cheap 50mm prime (f/1.8) and stitched together as a panorama.
Thanks so much for this great site!
I’m an alumna who never got to paint the bridge and would like to do so when my friends and I come back for a visit this spring. Do you know if there are official rules and where I can find them?
Thanks so much!
I’m glad you appreciate it! I don’t believe there are any official rules, but there are some unofficial ones, such as writing something to the effect of “Thanks Beta” in order to prevent the frat brothers from painting over your creation. Most paintings are done overnight, but I have seen plenty of people do it in the day and there seems to be no issue with police. I’ll be sure to get your painting on the site!
Thank you so much! That DOES put a lot of pressure on us to make it good ;)
Would it be sufficient to get some paints and brushes from Wal-mart, say, or do we need rollers? I suppose that depends on our painting idea…
Can’t wait to shed this professional facade I put up at work and paint!
hi, i’m with the cavalier daily. can we use one of your photos for a story we are running tomorrow? it would be much appreciated! thanks!