In the latest twist in one of the strangest ongoing scandals in Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced that the government would be dropping charges against the four people accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the 2,000-foot long water basin that connects the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument. Pirro said faulty construction – not vandalism, as President Donald Trump had claimed – caused the pool’s liner to peel off in June 2026.
As I’ve followed this bizarre saga, I’ve found myself reflecting on the history of the pool itself. It was built in the 1920s, when Washington was transformed by ambitious construction projects, even as the nation grappled with political division, racial conflict and clashes between religion and secularism.
