Mike + Walt

Mike and Walt’s declaration was one of many messages in the east abutment of the Spring Street Bridge expressing queer identity. Constructed in 1926, the bridge abutments under the Spring Street Bridge were left open and soon covered with writing in pencil, chalk, and charcoal—before being sealed sometime in the 1940s. Restructuring of the Spring Street Bridge in 2013 re-opened the abutments, revealing preserved writings and images, some of which were documented before contemporary graffiti writers wrote over them. Judging from the signatures on its interior, which date from the late 1920s and early 1930s, the eastern bridge abutment seems to have acted as part queer space and a safe haven for people with non-normative sexual identities.