The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

Beta Bridge Daily documents student tradition

Webpage keeps students up to date on U.Va. landmark

<p>The Photography Club maintains a site that posts daily pictures of Beta Bridge.</p>

The Photography Club maintains a site that posts daily pictures of Beta Bridge.

Beta Bridge is an important tradition in the University of Virginia culture. Students paint the walls as a way of publicizing events, bringing awareness to important topics or showing school pride. Thanks to Beta Bridge Daily, students can keep up with each reincarnation.

Run by the Photography Club at the University of Virginia, Beta Bridge Daily is a website that posts daily pictures of the bridge, accompanied by any necessary information about the organization, event, or idea being publicized.

Elizabeth Spear, a recent graduate of the College, was the original manager of the website. She cites another blog called Beta Bridge Almost Daily, previously run by graduate of the University, as the inspiration for the Photography Club’s current website.

Spear and the Photography Club believed it was important to continue documenting this staple in University life, and to post a new picture of the bridge every day.

“We just thought it was a really cool thing to do and also a necessity,” Spear said, “It’s a part of the UVA tradition that needed to be exposed and recorded, because otherwise it’ll just get painted over. Whatever memory was there from that day, that week, or that year is completely gone, and so we felt somebody needed to do something about that.”

Second-year College student Melissa Lewis is the current manager of the website. She has taken over the responsibility of collecting, captioning and posting the photos to the Beta Bridge Daily website, as a service to fellow students.

“Sadly a lot of people can’t make it out there everyday, it depending on where you live or where your classes are. And so Beta Bridge Daily is really important because it gives students the opportunity to see what’s [happening] on grounds. It’s also a good way for the alumni, who are no longer here, to still see what’s going on at the University and feel like they’re involved too,” Lewis said.

Beta Bridge Daily is also shared on Facebook and Instagram. Second-year College student, Lauren Barnhorst runs these accounts as the marketing chair of the Photography Club. To her, Beta Bridge represents more than just a place to publicize events and news.

“I’ve loved Beta Bridge since the first time I saw it on one of my visits to U.Va.,” Barnhorst said. “The layers and layers of paint seem to represent the level of involvement and sense of community that U.Va. students share.” 

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