Here's what Graffiti Bridge looks like when power washed

A professional power washer out of Gulf Breeze thought it would be cool to see what Graffiti Bridge would look like if you blasted off dozens, possibly even hundreds, of paint layers.

Turns out "hundreds" probably didn't come close.

James Romero works for Absolute Dustless Blasting LLC, with his father, Ryan. On the way back from a job in Pensacola on Saturday they decided to stop by one of the city's most notable landmarks to curb their curiosity.

"Since we got into this industry we've wondered how thick the paint was on that bridge," Romero said. "So we said, 'Yeah, let's just go do a little a spot.' And when we did it, it blew my mind how thick it really was, how deep it really was."

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Using a process that involved 95 percent water and five percent crushed glass with aggregate, Romero said he sprayed two golf-ball sized spots on the side of the bridge, uncovering a tree ring-like circle that he estimated to be nearly four inches thick.

"I would like to do it again and actually count the layers of paint," he said. "This was on a section of the wall that doesn't normally get painted. So that tells me that the main section, like the two faces of the bridge, are probably twice as thick."

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Romero's Facebook Live video of the power washing has been viewed over 124,000 times as of Tuesday afternoon. With some of those views came angry commenters, who questioned Romero's motives, as well as the legality of his experiment.

"Some people messaged me and said I should be thrown in jail, I'm defacing public property and all this stuff," Romero said. "One, it's not a historical landmark. It's a public landmark. We weren't there to destroy the bridge, we were there really to gain knowledge."

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The bridge, less famously known as the 17th street CSX Railroad Trestle, is exempt from the city's statute that protects public property from defacement. City spokesman Vernon Stewart said the power washing would not "constitute any type of code violation that I am aware of."

Romero's experiment led him to question the safety of the bridge, estimating that thousands of pounds of paint have canvassed the structure over the years.

"Weight gets added every day, every time it gets painted," Romero said. "So, you start doing the math on the amount of times it's been painted and it makes you wonder if maybe there's a hazard there."

A CSX spokesperson issued a general statement about its bridges when asked about safety concerns. Part of that statement said the company conducts "a thorough examination of every bridge on our network at least once each calendar year, which meets or exceeds regulatory and legal mandates and the track structure on bridges is inspected and monitored periodically each week."

While he said the experiment was fun and that he'd like to go back one day and power wash a portion of the center of the bridge's wall, Romero also said his company is not the one to call should the city ever decide to completely wipe the graffiti clean.

"If we could get enough support, instead of starting a mutiny, we'd love to go out and do it again," he said. "But I'm not willing to do that job, if one ever happens. You know what that would do to my business? I'd probably end up getting shot."

Jake Newby can be reached at jnewby@pnj.com or 850-435-8538.