Trump's 'American flag blue' reflecting pool project gets a mixed reaction in D.C.
Rachel Treisman/NPR
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Rachel Treisman/NPR
WASHINGTON — On a typical spring morning in D.C., the area around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool bustles with runners, photographers, tourists and families of ducks.
This Monday, however, the 2,030 foot-long pool sat completely empty, save for a smattering of construction vehicles, portable toilets and traffic cones. In one of the corners of the drained pool, workers stood in a cluster, spraying the bottom with what looked like blue paint.
"I honestly can't tell what they're doing right now," said Laurie Collins, a lifelong D.C. resident who was taking pictures of the scene to update the nearly 180,000 followers of her Instagram account @dccitygirl. "The way it seems that they're spraying this paint it's probably going to take them a year to finish it."
The pool is being resurfaced as part of President Trump's efforts to reshape iconic parts of the city. He says the project will take one week and cost $2 million. The overhaul would turn the reflecting pool from its longtime gray hue to a swimming pool-like blue.
NPR has reached out to the National Park Service, which administers the National Mall, for more information about the timeline, cost and upkeep of the resurfacing, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Trump told reporters last Thursday that he is working with one of his best "pool builders" from his real estate development days to clean up the pool, fix some of its joints and resurface it with "industrial-grade" material in the color "American flag blue."
Crews paint a new blue coating on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Saturday.
Andrew Leyden/Getty Images
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