Washington's Monuments Are Coming Back. So Is American Memory

In the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the idealistic young congressman’s first steps in Washington, D.C., are through the doors of Union Station, where he is greeted by the Columbus fountain and, beyond it, the Capitol dome.

That same fountain was renovated this year in the span of just five months, after sitting non-functional since 2007, nearly two decades and three presidencies later. It had been stained by graffiti, rusted by disuse, and battered by pigeon droppings. The landmark had become so unrecognizable that residents believed it was a statue, not a fountain.