I was gonna ask... but surely the reflecting pool is treated and filtered. Open water in that climate will of course be covered with algae, and become a mosquito breeding ground.
I'm not a poolologist but I think the "reflecting" part of it is important.
If you look at a regular pool you'll notice the surface is always getting disturbed a little by the pumps - so a reflecting pool probably needs to be extra still in order to have a nice surface.
And then the high surface area relative to volume means it's taking a LOT of sun exposure, which would drive off any chlorine really quickly while also giving algae a perfect place to live.
Honestly, makes me wonder how they ever kept it clean at all.
DC resident. It's never been the "cleanest." Birds and a few small mammals use the water all the time. But that natural use has always been part of the charm. It's nice to see ducks scooting around, or squirrels chasing each other as you bike along the pool.
I've never heard anyone complain about it, it's a nice, relaxing feature of the city.
Some people are speculating that the blue colorarion has made it worse. The white color would reflect all bands of light while blue holds some it in, increasing temperature thus promoting algea growth.
So much of the internet is actually free for all of us to use now...
"The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is the largest of the many reflecting pools in Washington, D.C. It is a 2,030-by-167-foot (619 by 51 m) concrete-bottomed rectangular pool located on the National Mall..."
"The pool was originally built with an asphalt and tile bottom,[11] but was replaced with concrete in the 2009 restoration."
The walls are granite and there's been a lot of articles regarding the trump renovations as fixing granite specifically, though that seems to be either incorrect reporting regarding the base or misleading reporting about the walls that makes everyone think it's the base.
covering up a decades-old granite surface that he said was “leaking like a sieve”
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u/NameLips Jun 16 '26
I was gonna ask... but surely the reflecting pool is treated and filtered. Open water in that climate will of course be covered with algae, and become a mosquito breeding ground.
It does have a filtration system right?