Gah! My first thought in coming across this photo in the Flickr stream was most definitely, “What in the name of all that’s holy IS THIS? And why would Kyle Walton put this in the DCist Flickr pool where anyone could innocently stumble over it?” I was going to quickly click onto the next image, but curiosity overwhelmed me and I Googled the tag “William M. Cochran,” which led to the bizarro-geocities-esque page for The Community Bridge. Apparently, Cochran is a “professional public artist and trompe l’oeil master” in Frederick, Md., most famous for his $500,000 illusion painted onto a pretty damn ugly bridge. He says that the fake gates are so real-looking that birds try to land on them, which is hilarious and… kind of mean? He paints other various illusions around town, including the terrifying Jesus, David Copperfield, Mel Gibson The Edge of Gravity you see above. Enjoy!