National Park Service crews turned on the spigot Thursday to begin filling the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, capping President Donald Trump’s citywide beautification initiative for Washington, D.C., in time for America’s 250th anniversary. The plan, which included the reopening of nine historic fountains across the city, is a reminder that the decrepit state of most Democratic-controlled cities is a choice, and that all that is needed is political will to make our cities beautiful again.
The restored fountains show how Washington is supposed to look when the nation treats its capital as a place worthy of care. At Columbus Plaza, outside Union Station, water is flowing again after 19 years, turning what had become a dingy graffiti and trash-strewn homeless encampment into a gleaming civic gateway. “I’ve never seen it like this. It’s so blue,” one longtime D.C. resident posted on social media. “It is bouncing off the white marble. I’ve never seen the marble this clean.”
The effect may be even more powerful at Meridian Hill Park, where the grand, formal cascade with 13 basins, modeled on the fountains of Italian villas, is flowing again for the first time in seven years. The water restores not just a fountain, but the atmosphere of one of the city’s most beautiful public spaces. “It’s not because he loves D.C. people, it’s because he wants to show off,” DC resident and no fan of Trump, Florence Navarro, told local news. “But thank you. This place is special for us. It feels so peaceful to be here in the shade, listening to the sound of the water, it’s just magical.”
