Rainbow Pool

{{Short description|Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington D.C., United States}}

File:Rainbowpool.jpg

The Rainbow Pool was a reflecting pool located on the National Mall in Washington D.C., USA. It was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.,{{Cite book|title = Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape|url = https://archive.org/details/monumentwarswash00sava|url-access = limited|last = Savage|first = Kirk|publisher = University of California Press|year = 2009|isbn = 978-0520256545|location = Berkeley, CA|pages = [https://archive.org/details/monumentwarswash00sava/page/n315 303]}} and was situated between the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool (to the west), and 17th Street NW (to the east). The pool was renamed the Rainbow Pool on October 15, 1924, after it was noticed that its 124 nozzles created a "perfect rainbow" when turned on.{{Cite news|title = NEW RAINBOW FOUNTAIN' ON ELLIPSE PLAYS TODAY: 124 Nozzles Shoot Streams in Air, Reflecting Spectrum at Lincoln Memorial. PRESIDENT MAY ATTEND|last = The Washington Post|date = Oct 15, 1924|id = {{ProQuest|149425091}}}}

In 2001 it was integrated into the National World War II Memorial, which features the pool located in roughly the same spot.{{cite web| title=The World War II Memorial in Washington DC| url=http://history1900s.about.com/cs/worldwarii/a/wwiimemorial.htm| author=Jennifer Rosenberg| publisher=about.com| access-date=2011-07-25}} The builders of the National World War II Memorial asserted that the memorial would not destroy the Rainbow pool; rather it would be sunk lower into the ground to better fit the structure of the World War II Memorial.{{Cite web|url = http://www.wwiimemorial.com/?page=overview.asp&subpage=critics|title = Correcting the Critics: The Facts|date = 2003|access-date = July 12, 2014|website = National WWII Memorial}} This was a controversial development, as the Rainbow Pool had a central, visible location between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. The debate over the World War II Memorial's occupation of the space had to be resolved by legislation from the U.S. Congress in 2001 which allowed the building of the memorial to continue.{{Cite book|title = Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape|url = https://archive.org/details/monumentwarswash00sava|url-access = limited|last = Savage|first = Kirk|publisher = University of California Press|year = 2009|isbn = 978-0520256545|location = Berkeley, CA|pages = [https://archive.org/details/monumentwarswash00sava/page/n312 300]}}