Fact Check: Is the chart shown by Trump comparing the reflecting pool to US skyscrapers accurate?
WASHINGTON, DC: Amid President Donald Trump’s effort to restore the iconic Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, he shared a chart comparing the pool's size to skyscrapers in the United States and claimed that the pool is larger than the buildings, sparking speculation. Let us analyze the measurement and fact-check Trump’s claim.
Claim: Donald Trump's Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is larger than US skyscrapers
Trump recently showed the chart depicting the size of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool compared with some of the country's most famous skyscrapers, which went viral on social media.
According to the chart, the reflecting pool's length exceeds the heights of Chicago's Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), New York's Empire State Building, and One World Trade Center.
Even though many appeared to believe the chart was accurate, others remained skeptical and questioned its accuracy, prompting a fact-check.
Fact Check: Some measurements differed from official reports
The chart, however, is mostly accurate, but measurements differed slightly from official reports by 2 feet or less.
But the scale of the chart was somewhat misleading, as the distance between 0 and 1,000 feet was the same as the distance from 1,000 to 1,500 feet; hence, the claim is rated as mostly true.
According to WSP Global, a consulting firm hired in 2009 by the National Parks Service for the renovation of the reflecting pool under then-President Barack Obama, the pond measures 2,028 feet in length and 167 feet in width.
Trump's chart stated it was 2,030 feet long. The Willis Tower website and reports from Time magazine and the Chicago Tribune in the 1970s indicate that the building stands at 1,450 feet high.
Trump's chart added an extra foot, claiming it was 1,451 feet, which correctly used the full architectural heights of the buildings.
The Empire State Building's official height varies by measurement method; it is 1,250 feet to the top floor, but 1,454 feet when including its spire and antenna, which is the figure used on the chart.
The chart also accurately listed One World Trade Center at 1,776 feet, its official height, chosen to symbolize the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
