The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is the largest of the many reflecting pools in Washington, D.C. Dedicated in 1922, it is a 2,028-by-167-foot (618 by 51 m) concrete-bottomed roughly rectangular pool that as of 2012 holds about 4 million US gallons (15,000 m3) of water. The pool is located on the National Mall, in between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
The Reflecting Pool attracts 24 million visitors annually. It is lined by walking paths and trees on both sides. Depending on the viewer's vantage point, it reflects the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Mall's trees, and the sky.
Many marches and events have been held at the Reflecting Pool, such as the March on Washington and the Commitment March. A celebration of the then soon to occur inauguration of Barack Obama named the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial was held in the area on January 18, 2009.
The pool was originally built with a bottom of asphalt and tile, and was supplied from the city's drinking water supply, and in its initial plans was going to be cruciform shaped, although this never came to fruition. Starting in 2009, the pool was completely rebuilt and the bottom was replaced with concrete slabs supported by timber pilings. The Reflecting Pool was also changed to be supplied with water from the Tidal Basin, instead of the earlier-used D.C. potable water.
In 2026, the pool was resurfaced at the order of U.S. president Donald Trump with a blue polyurea coating, and a nanobubbler filtration system was added. The renovation engendered public intrigue after only a matter of days, as the coating began to peel and the Reflecting Pool sustained an algal bloom. Trump's claims that the pool was vandalized were never substantiated. The U.S. Justice Department later admitted in a legal filing that the 2026 renovation had been "hasty and botched," and the problems were not caused by vandalism.
Contents
Description
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was designed by Henry Bacon. The groundbreaking for the Lincoln Memorial and the pool was on February 12, 1914, and they were dedicated on May 30, 1922. During construction, the pool was nicknamed by some sources as a "water mirror". When originally constructed, it was approximately 2,028 feet (618 m) long and 167 feet (51 m) wide. It was completely rebuilt between 2010 and 2012. The pool was originally built with an asphalt and tile bottom, but was replaced with concrete in the 2009 restoration. The nearby walkways and the rim of the Reflecting Pool are made of granite.
Before the 2009 restoration the Reflecting Pool held 6.75 million U.S. gallons (25.6 million liters) of water. According to former U.S. secretary of the interior Ken Salazar, it now holds about 4 million U.S. gallons (15 million liters) of water.
History
Initial creation
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was part of the McMillan Plan, which was used as a blueprint for most federal government buildings in Washington D.C. The Reflecting Pool was originally designed in the shape of a cruciform with round edges, with the smaller secondary pool, the Rainbow Pool, situated between it and the Washington Monument. The two small arms of the cross for the Reflecting Pool were removed from the plan due to the presence of nearby US Navy buildings. These structures, including one that housed munitions, obstructed the area for the proposed excavation work. The round edges of the pool were also changed to be square.
Because the Reflecting Pool and the Rainbow Pool were built on reclaimed marshland, various steps were taken to prevent the pools from settling in a way that would cause them to appear unequal. These steps included supporting parts of each pool with bedrock that was deep below the ground, and building part of the pools in a way to account for eventual settlement.
Systems that could be used to drain and fill the water within each pool in a 24 hour period were also planned.
The construction of both pools was delayed until 1919 due to World War I. Construction finally began in 1922.
The hole for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to be built inside of was dug out using steam shovels that were carried using a modular railway that would be built, disassembled and rebuilt to move with the steam shovels as they excavated the area.
The drainage system for the pool used a 36 in (91 cm) concrete pipe in the middle of the pool connected to a sump pump 450 feet (140 m) away, that was later connected to the Tidal Basin. The initial plan to pump water from the Tidal Basin directly into the pool was also abandoned for D.C's (at that time) new potable water supply.
The Reflecting Pool was made level using 366 wood and concrete pilings that reached down to the bedrock below the pool, and a large amount of T-beams were put on top of the piles with the pool's granite coping built on top of the beams. The bottom of the pool was connected to the edges of the pool using concrete slabs that were hinged to the pool bottom.
2009 restoration
Using funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the National Park Service reconstructed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The project was managed by the Louis Berger Group. Construction on the 18-month, $30.74 million project began in November 2010. In May 2011, workers began sinking the first of 2,133 wood pilings into a 40-foot-deep (12-meter) layer of soft, marshy river clay and some dredged-up material atop bedrock to support a new pool. The pool's water supply system was updated to eliminate stagnant water by circulating water from the Tidal Basin; the pool was formerly filled using potable water from the city. Paved walking paths were added to the north and south sides of the pool to replace worn grass and to prevent erosion. The pool reopened on August 31, 2012.
Within weeks of the pool's reopening in 2012, it had to be drained and cleaned for $100,000 due to algae in the pool. The algae growth almost completely covered the surface of the pool. The National Park Service said that, using an ozone disinfectant system installed during the restoration, they would double the amount of algae-killing ozone in the pool in an effort to control future outbreaks. In 2013, construction on the National World War II Memorial damaged the eastern end of the Reflecting Pool. National Park Service workers closed the eastern 30 feet (9 meters) of the pool in August 2015 to repair the basin, work that was completed in the summer of 2016. The Reflecting Pool was completely drained in June 2017 to control a schistosome outbreak. The parasite, which causes swimmer's itch, infected the snails that inhabited the pool and ultimately killed more than 80 ducks and ducklings in a few weeks during spring 2017.
2026 renovations
In April 2026, U.S. president Donald Trump announced the resurfacing of the concrete bottom of the pool, in a color he called "American flag blue" (most likely Old Glory Blue), had begun. The reason given by Trump and his administration for this project was to make the pool "beautiful" and to remove algae. On May 4, Trump stated that the improvements to the Reflecting Pool "will last for at least 50 years and you'll never have a leak".
On May 8, the Interior Department said they planned to pay $13.1 million for the project.
Trump chose the various factors of the changes without reviews by federal agencies, opportunity for public comment, or congressional approval. Atlantic Industrial Coatings (AIC), was provided its first federal contract, a no-bid contract, to fix leaks from the joints in the Reflecting Pool and waterproof the pool's concrete bottom. Trump originally stated that AIC had previously performed work for him, but later retracted that claim, stating instead that the contract had been awarded by the Department of the Interior. The project also included a new nanobubbler water purification system installed by the company Greenwater Services, which is owned by a neighbor of Trump's at Mar-a-Lago; the company also secured a no-bid contract for the work. The contractor who had previously renovated the pool declined the Trump administration's offer to do the new renovations because, according to two employees interviewed by CNN, the 2026 project was "unfeasible".
Trump's motorcade drove through the pool to inspect it before the Reflecting Pool was filled with water after its completion.
On May 11, nonprofit group the Cultural Landscape Foundation sued the Trump administration to prevent the project from continuing.
The work was completed on June 5. Within days of the refilling of the pool, algae bloomed in the pool. National Park Service workers poured hydrogen peroxide into the pool and manually vacuumed the pool in an effort to remove the algae. The New York Times spoke to employees of Greenwater Services, who said the National Park Service had asked them to remove the nanobubbling purifier systems from the pool's rim for Trump's UFC Championship set on the White House lawn. According to the same employees; by the time they were reinstalled 36 hours later, the algae was in full bloom.
Events
The area of and around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been the site of many historic events, including:
In 1939, singer Marian Anderson was denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington because she was an African American. Instead, an open-air concert was held on Easter Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial and the surrounding area with a crowd of over 75,000 people.
On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington used the area for its civil rights movement rally. It was there that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered to a crowd of 250,000 people.
On October 21, 1967, 100,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters met at the pool and memorial to begin the March on the Pentagon.
In 2009, We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial was held, with a crowd of 400,000 people.
On August 28, 2013, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech was commemorated by an all-day event. The event featured various speakers including then president Barack Obama and John Lewis, the only living speaker from the original rally.
On August 28, 2020, the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks was organized and held by Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III. The march came in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests. Speakers included Sharpton, King, then vice-president nominee Kamala Harris, as well as family members of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, and other victims of racial violence.
On January 19, 2021, then president-elect Joe Biden and then vice president-elect Kamala Harris held a memorial honoring the 400,000 Americans who had by that time died in the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
In popular culture
The Reflecting Pool was featured in the following films:
The 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The 1994 film Forrest Gump
The 2004 film National Treasure
The 2005 film Wedding Crashers
The 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming
The 2020 film Wonder Woman 1984