Deer Park?

November 6, 2007 6:10 PM

What fills up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool?

Water...duh. But is it spring fed?

posted by evilelvis to Law & Government (8 answers total)

It's a Tidal Basin. Here you go!
posted by nkknkk at 6:20 PM on November 6, 2007

Shoot, wrong body of water and wrong memorial. The Reflecting Pool on wikipedia.
posted by nkknkk at 6:21 PM on November 6, 2007

Oh I swear. I am going to have to take a web-break. I just now hit Post too quickly. I was saying...

Neither of those links say HOW the pool is filled, but it contains 6,750,000 gallons and there doesn't seem to be any indication that it's spring-fed. I believe that it's basically a shallow man-made lake, filled at one point and presumably refilled as necessary.

Going away now.
posted by nkknkk at 6:25 PM on November 6, 2007

Here is the DC Water & Sewer Authority contact page. I bet they know.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:00 PM on November 6, 2007

According to this result from Google Books, the Reflecting Pool is three feet deep and it takes 24 hours to fill it with water. That would seem to indicate it is simply a pool, as its name would indicate. Also consider that, if it were spring-fed or tide-fed, it would not be as still as it needs to be to be a proper reflecting pool.
posted by cerebus19 at 7:16 PM on November 6, 2007

Really interesting question, I've often wondered this myself but don't know the answer.

I figured they probably fill it from the regular municipal water supply, or maybe from the fire hydrant supply (are they one and the same?).

Due to the land on which they're built (filled swampland), I doubt that they're spring-fed; I think the water is artificially added.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:05 PM on November 6, 2007

A few years back (when I lived nearby) the pool was dry for a span of weeks. I don't know if that was because the Park Service was trying to save water or what, but it gave me the impression that the pool relied on a natural water source.
posted by exogenous at 1:03 PM on November 7, 2007

Spring fed? Preposterous. This DC native's never heard of such a thing. The government wouldn't allow it because it would overflow!
posted by Rash at 2:30 PM on November 7, 2007