Workers paint a corner of the reflecting pool blue on Monday morning. Rachel Treisman/NPR hide caption

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Rachel Treisman/NPR

WASHINGTON — On a typical spring morning in D.C., the area around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool bustles with runners, photographers, tourists and families of ducks.

This Monday, however, the 2,030 foot-long pool sat completely empty, save for a smattering of construction vehicles, portable toilets and traffic cones. In one of the corners of the drained pool, workers stood in a cluster, spraying the bottom with what looked like blue paint.

"I honestly can't tell what they're doing right now," said Laurie Collins, a lifelong D.C. resident who was taking pictures of the scene to update the nearly 180,000 followers of her Instagram account @dccitygirl . "The way it seems that they're spraying this paint it's probably going to take them a year to finish it."

The pool is being resurfaced as part of President Trump's efforts to reshape iconic parts of the city.…