The city of Philadelphia is claiming that the rust on the side of a Schuylkill River overpass is a mural designed and painted by the world-renowned Mural Arts Program (MAP). Having just overhauled the JFK Blvd Bridge and currently replacing the South St Bridge, the city, not to mention the state, seem to have an endless list of infrastructure projects on the horizon with little or no funding.
Is the bridge safe or is the city creating reasons to postpone or avoid costly, needed repairs?
The rusted bridge, which sits near the iconic Art Museum and the historic Waterworks and its recently refurbished park, has been the center of a public outcry demanding its cleaning to better blend with its neighbors—a cleaning that would cost the financially strapped city over $5 million.
Some say that the steep cost to rehab the bridge has led the current administration to claim that the horrid rust is a mural titled, "The Rust."
"Look at it. It's one of the best murals going. It actually looks like rust," said city bridge inspector Grace Higgins. "I’ll be the first to admit that I, too, thought it was rust upon first inspection, then I did the math. The numbers don’t lie … it’s not rust.”
At first, the Mural Arts Program, which has created the largest collection of murals in the world and is copied nationally and internationally, denied the claim saying, "The rust is actual rust and we have never been involved with a project on the Martin Luther King Dr Bridge."
"Yesterday, I saw a group of tourists pour from a bus parked near the bridge. They walked down the path and began to take hundreds of photos of the bridge," said Tom Hildebrand, a citizen calling for the removal of the rust. "These tourists had to be hired by the city."
The administration called the accusation "nonsense and insulting" and said the bridge has been luring visitors for months since the mural was completed.
"We can't even plow our own streets in the winter," said a city representative. "How are we going to rent a luxury bus liner from Krapfs, or where ever the bus was from, and pay everyone on board to act like a tourist? This is comical."
Remove the Rust, a local group calling for the cleaning, say they have proof, through time-lapse photography, that the rust is not a mural. They are claiming the corrosion has been developing over the course of 15 to 20 years and they have never seen an artist near the bridge.
"The mural was started almost 20 years ago and it has been worked on little by little each year by the artist Franz Dorgle," said Ken Fitzgerald, a Streets Department official. "He’s a slow worker and he works late at night.”
One thing is clear, however, that somewhere along the way there was a breakdown in communication or a falling out between the Mural Arts Program and the city on how the rust controversy would be handled publicly.
There is speculation that MAP officials, possibly unsatisfied with the city's financial support, refused the request to claim the rust as part of the program by a city that felt it had consistently and sufficiently backed the nonprofit monetarily. Or possibly, MAP agreed to claim the rust for a small fee and the administration never came through with the promised "donation."
Yesterday, however, MAP abruptly changed its story and claimed the "The Rust" was, in fact, part of the program and that forgetting a mural has happened before and is not all that uncommon.
"Oh, it’s one of ours," said a grinning Sara Von Ruyen, a MAP board member. "We have tons and tons of paperwork here and things get lost or forgotten. For example, I completely forgot we did the Dr J mural a few years back. Someone had to literally sit me down and say, 'Sara, we did do the Dr J mural back in 19-whatever.' I was floored."
Later yesterday afternoon, the city issued this statement: "We thought it was a mural all along. We mean no disrespect to Mother Nature, but the oxidizing process caused by water and air could not possibly result in something so exquisite. This was created by a masterful brush on a structurally sound bridge."
Remove the Rust president David Werner said his organization was convinced and that his group was embarrassed and would cease its campaign to remove the ferric hydroxide and ferric oxide that is rust.
"Now our mission is to do whatever we can to help preserve ‘The Rust,’" said Werner.
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