{"id":158739,"date":"2025-11-25T12:03:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T12:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/158739\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T12:03:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T12:03:15","slug":"bridget-the-dino-statue-was-vandalized-in-manayunk-this-weekend-the-community-rallies-for-her-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/158739\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridget the Dino statue was vandalized in Manayunk this weekend. The community rallies for her restoration."},"content":{"rendered":"

Annie Schuster couldn\u2019t believe what she saw Sunday night when scrolling Instagram. She ran to the kitchen to show her husband the grisly crime that had occurred in their Manayunk<\/a> neighborhood hours earlier.<\/p>\n

Bridget the Dino<\/a>, a 3-foot-tall costume-sporting stone Tyrannosaurus rex, was ruthlessly beheaded, in the garden she calls home. Bridget\u2019s head, still wearing a scarf, was lying at the foot of her stone body in the photo posted by the Manayunk Bridge Garden<\/a>, the dinosaur\u2019s caretakers.<\/p>\n

Schuster and her husband, who live in Manayunk and take their children to see Bridget regularly, were in shock. \u201cI thought it was like an unspoken rule, you leave Bridget alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Roxborough<\/a> resident Juliane Holz felt a wave of anger and sadness as she learned of the vandalism, \u201cShe\u2019s actually decapitated,\u201d she said to herself upon reading a text from a neighbor.<\/p>\n

Park volunteers notified the community that someone knocked the head off the statue in a heartfelt Instagram post<\/a> Sunday evening. While the park didn\u2019t announce any suspects or persons of interest, they\u2019re calling on the community for help. \u201cIf you saw anything, or know what happened, please reach out,\u201d the statement said. Volunteers filed a report of vandalism with Philadelphia police, but neighbors aren\u2019t expecting police to catch the person who did it, Holz said.<\/p>\n

Holz, who serves as a volunteer for the Roxborough Manayunk Conservancy, which oversees the garden at Dupont and High Streets, believes the vandalism occurred between a volunteer event that the garden hosted Saturday evening and early Sunday, when neighbors walk their dogs in the morning.<\/p>\n

Schuster and other parents teach their children the golden rules of keeping one\u2019s hands to oneself, so it\u2019s perplexing to think an adult would do something like this, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it definitely had to be an adult, which is unfortunate because it\u2019s not very adultlike behavior. It had to involve a lot of strength because I don\u2019t even know how you carry one, they\u2019re so heavy. Let alone knock it over and put it back up.\u201c<\/p>\n

Holz echoed other neighbors\u2019 sentiments that it must have been an intentional act committed by an adult, seeing as the 300-pound Bridget would be difficult to move even for the strongest Philadelphians, Holz said. <\/p>\n

This is a blow to a neighborhood, Schuster said, which has steadily been redefining its community spaces to be more green, inviting, and a safe place for the many young families of Manayunk. Bridget the Dino is a symbol for the patchwork of neighbors who are volunteering their time and contributing to public spaces. On holidays, locals adorn her in themed costumes, like a witch for Halloween<\/a> or rainbow-colored skirts for Pride<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like something silly to be upset about, but someone put a lot of effort and money \u2014 these statues and improvements are not cheap \u2014 into making that bridge garden a really nice place,\u201d Schuster said. \u201cI hate the fact that somebody did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holz and Schuster both agree that if a perpetrator is caught, they will receive a community service punishment of a full year of mandatory weeding. \u201cThe most grueling job in the garden,\u201d Holz said.<\/p>\n

Does Manayunk replace or repair Bridget the Dino?<\/p>\n

Holz said that the Manayunk Bridge Park will neither replace nor repair Bridget, as the dinosaur is \u201cirreplaceable\u201d and it would be disrespectful to place another stone dinosaur in her stead and refer to is as \u201cBridget.\u201d Park volunteers are wary of repairing Bridget because of the slanted break across her neck. Any repair could easily succumb to the weight of a child riding her back or a dog leaning on top of her, and cause injury, Holz said.<\/p>\n

Bridget originates from the local home and garden center store, Holod\u2019s on Ridge Pike in Lafayette Hill, which hosts an annual stone T. rex costume contest. Last year\u2019s winner was “Rexy the Paleontologist<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

In the wake of Bridget\u2019s destruction, Holod\u2019s will be donating a brand new stone dinosaur statue, Holz said. Several neighbors already own stone dinos from Holod\u2019s, which has become a staple on stoops throughout Roxborough and Manayunk. Holz\u2019s home dinosaur is named Hans.<\/p>\n

Many offered to donate their own, but Holz is grateful for Holod\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time animal statue vandalism has hit the Bridge Garden. Bridget had a friend named \u201cGary the Goat,\u201d a similar-sized plush goat toy who dressed up alongside Bridget, who was stolen from the park in 2023. \u201cHe was stripped of his clothes, and poof, he was gone from the Manayunk Bridge Gardens. Bridget misses her friend,\u201d one Roxborough Rants & Raves<\/a> Facebook group member wrote at the time.<\/p>\n

As the Manayunk Railroad bridge was converted into a pedestrian and cyclist bridge in 2015, a movement began to revitalize the green spaces along the trail, birthing the Manayunk Bridge Park around 2020. Bridget the Dino, named after the bridge she lives at, soon arrived and graced the park as its loyal guardian and mascot for the wider community.<\/p>\n

It also helps that Bridget is eye-level with most young children for approving pats on the head, Schuster said.<\/p>\n

Bridget will soon be repurposed elsewhere in the garden to safely rest and continue her tenure as the garden\u2019s guardian, Holz said. Once the new dinosaur statue arrives, the community will have to come together to imagine a new name and backstory, \u201cCould it be Bridget\u2019s child or maybe an entirely new dinosaur altogether?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n