Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Algae Bloom Followed by Peeling Paint

Summary

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool got a multimillion-dollar makeover, and the results, so far, are not what the Trump administration had in mind. Workers drained and repainted the pool in a shade officially described as 'American flag blue,' part of a broader effort to refresh one of Washington's most iconic landmarks. Then the algae arrived, turning the water a vivid green. National Park Service crews moved in to treat the bloom, but as they did, a second problem surfaced: the new blue coating began peeling away, leaving white blobs floating alongside the green water. By Friday, tourists were stopping to stare, not at a gleaming patriotic centerpiece but at something closer to a public works cautionary tale. The pool stretches 2,000 feet between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, making its current condition hard to miss and harder to spin. No timeline for a fix has been announced, and the NPS has not publicly explained whether the paint failure and the algae treatment are connected.