On Truth Social President Trump detailed plans to overhaul the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The last major renovation of the reflecting pool was finished in 2012.
Trump called the reflection pool “filthy dirty” and said he hired private contractors to clean the granite lining the basin.
After a scrubbing, the pool will be coated in an “American flag blue.” The paint job will commence soon and take two weeks, Trump said.
The reflecting pool is 2,030 feet long and 170 feet wide. In section the pool is V-shaped; it ranges in depth from 18 inches to 30 inches. The granite lining the reflecting pool was laid in 1923, the year of completion.
The pool was designed by Henry Bacon concurrently with the construction of the Lincoln Memorial, and has been the site of numerous historical moments in U.S. history, including the “I Have a Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King.
The estimated cost to overhaul the reflecting pool is between $1 million and $2 million. It will be finished “long before July 4,” Trump said.
The project falls under the auspices of Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. Trump had previously discussed the renovation plans with Burgum who agrees that the pool needs cleaning.
Originally there were plans to replace the granite with stone, however that would have cost $300 million, and taken several years to complete, Trump said. Trump affirmed that this approach will be much more cost effective and faster.
Other projects underway in Washington, D.C. today to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary are the proposed East Wing ballroom, triumphal arch, Kennedy Center renovation, a new White House visitor center underneath Sherman Park.
Trump has also proposed overhauling the East Potomac Golf Course, painting the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and redesigning Dulles International Airport.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed by politicians, legal groups, and nonprofits to stop the Trump administration’s myriad construction projects.
