At 2,030 feet, the basin edged out One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and the Willis Tower. The figures are not in dispute.
President Trump on Wednesday presented reporters in the Oval Office with a chart titled “Our Pool is Bigger than Skyscrapers,” ranking the freshly repainted Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool above three of the nation’s tallest buildings. The reflecting pool chart placed the 2,030-foot basin over One World Trade Center, listed at 1,776 feet, the Empire State Building at 1,454 feet, and Chicago’s Willis Tower at 1,451 feet.
“So, if you lay it on its side, it would take two or three of them to fill it in,” Trump said, holding the placard aloft. “The width is almost 200 feet wide.”
The Reflecting Pool, completed in 1923, has spent the past century reflecting the Washington Monument from a gray basin. In April, the Interior Department began coating that basin in a dark shade the president calls “American Flag Blue.”
Historians, including the foundation now suing over the project, have warned the new color will make the pool resemble a large swimming pool rather than a reflecting basin. A 1999 National Park Service report had described the original gray tile as “character-defining,” noting that it “created the illusion of greater depth and a more profound reflection.” Asked about the swimming-pool comparison, an Interior Department spokesperson said the two “share more than people admit.”
What the Reflecting Pool Chart Measures
The comparison measures the pool by its length and the skyscrapers by their height. The administration has defended the approach as sound.
“A length is just a height that hasn’t been stood up yet,” one official said, declining to be named. “Nobody complains when you do it the other way.”
Asked whether the buildings on the chart might also be measured lengthwise, the official said the question was “not productive.” The reflecting pool chart was prepared, the official added, “to scale.”
The Cost
The president has offered several figures for the project. He initially estimated “$2 or $3 million,” then later revised the total to “less than $20 million” after deciding the pool’s exterior also needed work. He separately told a group of visiting college athletes that the renovation had “saved about $600 million” by finishing in roughly two weeks rather than a projected four years.
Federal records put the cost at $13.1 million, funded in part by national park visitation fees collected at 80 sites across the country. The Interior Department awarded the coating work to a Virginia firm without competitive bidding.
The Lawsuit
The Cultural Landscape Foundation has sued to halt the project, arguing the administration skipped the federal review and public-comment requirements of historic-preservation and environmental law. At a hearing held in front of the Lincoln Memorial, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, pressed the group’s attorneys on whether a coat of paint amounted to irreparable harm. He did not rule.
The foundation’s filing cited a post from the president’s social media account, which featured an AI-generated image of Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary Burgum lounging in the Reflecting Pool, the Washington Monument rising behind them.
A News4 crew at the National Mall reported the pool had not yet been refilled, though Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was seen walking across its dry surface, pausing to pose for a photo.
The pool joins a list of projects reshaping the capital, among them a planned 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, a new White House ballroom, and a UFC arena rising on the South Lawn. The region, meanwhile, remains under a drought advisory, with residents asked to conserve amid low Potomac River levels.
Water, the president said, will begin flowing into the 2,030-foot structure shortly.
About the Author
