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Notable People & Places

A Plane on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, 1923

A 1923 Harris & Ewing photo of an amphibian aircraft running down the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, spray flying.

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Amphibian aircraft on reflecting pool in front of Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. in 1923. (Harris & Ewing / Library of Congress)
Amphibian aircraft on reflecting pool in front of Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. in 1923. (Harris & Ewing / Library of Congress)

Yes, that is a plane on the Reflecting Pool. Harris & Ewing photographed this amphibian aircraft throwing up spray as it ran down the pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1923, the year after the memorial was dedicated.

You will not see this again. It belongs on the short list of aircraft turning up in unlikely corners of Washington, along with the plane we shared taking off from the White House South Lawn.

Amphibian aircraft on reflecting pool in front of Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. in 1923. (Harris & Ewing / Library of Congress)
Amphibian aircraft on reflecting pool in front of Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. in 1923. (Harris & Ewing / Library of Congress)

For the memorial behind the plane, including the swamp it was built on and what the Reflecting Pool was actually for, see our history of the Lincoln Memorial. For how the pool itself has changed since Henry Bacon designed it, see our Reflecting Pool history.

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Filed underNotable People & Places

Topics1920s · Lincoln Memorial

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