page_title: Surrender Dorothy
section_title: Washington area graffiti
hierarchical_section_title: Surrender Dorothy / Washington area graffiti
caption_attribution_description: English: The Washington D.C. Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, photographed from Interstate 495.
context_page_description: "Surrender Dorothy" is a famous special effect used in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, which later attained local fame as a graffito in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.
context_section_description: The famous graffiti reading "Surrender Dorothy" in the D.C. metropolitan area first appeared on the outer loop of I-495, the "Capital Beltway", on a railroad bridge near the Washington D.C. Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kensington, Maryland. The building is illuminated at night and the graffito first appeared in late 1973. It was removed by the Maryland State Police; however, it has been periodically repainted in various forms by equally unknown persons since the initial police removal.
  The rail line which contains the bridge is the old B&O Metropolitan Branch, now owned by CSX Transportation, which operates the MARC Brunswick Line and various freight trains on that branch. The location of the phrase is visible on approach driving on I-495 from the east, but only after one passes under the first of three bridges. It is the second of three bridges over the Beltway approaching from the east, with Seminary Road before it, and Linden Lane after it. As one approaches the bridges, first only the temple is visible in the distance, then as one passes under the first bridge, the temple comes back into view just as the words "Surrender Dorothy" appear.
  In summer 2007, a new piece of graffiti appeared on the rail bridge. The word "SURRENDER" was reduced in size to fit into a single section of the rail bridge, and the word "DOROTHY" was omitted from the graffiti. The previous message is no longer visible, but may still be detected at the top of the bridge, as the paint used to cover it does not exactly match the original paint on the bridge. The smaller "SURRENDER" graphic is located near the bottom of the bridge, over the far-left lane of traffic on the Outer Loop. On August 24, 2018, "SURRENDER DONALD" lettering (referring to US president Donald Trump) was spotted on the same bridge over the Washington Beltway. Evidently, the sign was made of easily removable letters that minimize property damage and was installed between 4 and 5 AM. Reportedly, Claude Taylor and his MadDog PAC claimed responsibility.
caption: Washington LDS Temple as seen from Interstate 495. The graffito originally was drawn on the second of the three bridges, seen here painted green.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A540", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:08:03 09:59:22", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4615", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "11/2", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:08:03 09:59:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:08:03 09:59:22", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "133/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "157/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "157/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "88", "EXIF FocalLength": "116/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2816", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2112", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2816", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2112", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2824", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "112640/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2112000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}