On the eve of America’s 250th birthday, in the nation’s capital, people were sweating through their shirts, and tourists were pressing electric fans directly to their foreheads. The record-breaking heat wave that scorched the Midwest earlier this week has turned Washington, DC, into an inferno. The temperature reached a high of 102 degrees, with a heat index of 117. The sky was cloudless, and the humidity was encouraging me to lie down and cry. It was hard to believe that DC had been four degrees warmer than this twice before, in August 1918 and July 1930. Tomorrow could be even more surreal, with another scorching day and crowds of tourists in town to see what the president has claimed will be the biggest fireworks display in human history.
On Tuesday, August 6, 1918, “it was so hot that the pavement of the streets in the center of the city became so soft that in some places the marks of pedestrians’ heels were left on it,” The Washington Herald it was reported at the time. Josephine Lehman, a young woman who would come to DC to work as a secretary in the War Department when World War I began, wrote to her mother that “concrete roads burned one’s feet through the soles of one’s shoes.” First of all, the city’s police chief decided to let his officers patrol without their jackets. Inside the house, conditions were very difficult. Fifty government employees in the State, War, and Navy Building—now called the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building—were taken to the emergency room because of the heat, Evening Star it was reported at the time. City officials ordered ice cream vendors to stop making ice cream to conserve ice supplies in the district. They also removed seating restrictions at community pools, worried that people would skip the swim line. Each pool ended up holding 600 to 700 people.
The pools were full until July 20, 1930—the second time DC hit 106 degrees. Thousands fled the city for the beach, which was “too hot for all but the most daring” however, Herald information. The paper also published a photo of about a dozen children splashing in the Reflecting Pool that day; the soldier, standing behind the picture, seems happy to let them play. Washington Daily News reported that the “Sunday crowd” still came to the National Zoo, where workers put the elephants down and the hippo remained in its bath. Meanwhile, thousands of people slept on benches, fire escapes, and parks throughout the city, especially in Potomac Park, south of the National Mall. Those who chose to relax on the banks of the Potomac River could be seen by ship passengers playing bridge and dancing in the river breeze. Just outside the city, wildfires burned across Maryland. According to Washington Times“sufficient aid could not be collected as the volunteers hated to endure the heat.”
Now, DC residents and visitors alike have the option of staying indoors with air conditioning. That’s good news, because many of the sites that residents used to cool off in years past are closed to the public today. Yellow tape separated me from Potomac Park; When I glared at the park police member, he waved at me. Because of the fireworks and other planned celebrations for the 250th, the National Mall is for now the maze of chain-link fences, megastages, Porta Potties, and temporary Greco-Roman structures. An exhibition of the shadowless State of the United States, where several of people were treated for heat-related problems today, it was canceled until 5 pm At one point, I asked a member of the National Guard if it would be possible to walk to the Lincoln Memorial, and he apologized for the heat. When I saw that he was the one covered in military fatigues (no officers seem to be relaxing uniform standards in this heat wave), he admitted to “suffering” but said that he was surviving.
No one could cool off in the Reflecting Pool—a place where swimming was never popular and which is now fenced off, thanks to algae bloom after President Trump failed to try to decorate it. Black bags of fireworks lined its perimeter, being set up for the upcoming festival. As close to the water as people could get were five protesters dressed as frogs, one of them holding a sign that read. TEAM ALGAE. As I was talking to one of the frog protesters, who only gave his name as Val and had ice packs in his sports bra to cool down, about 20 warplanes flew overhead, leaving red and blue smoke.
Fighter jets were spotted again while I was watching wildlife at the National Zoo. No one was chasing the elephants, but the staff told me that they have three pools to choose from and that the staff will shower them regularly. The pachyderms seemed fine, if sluggish, until the sonic booms began. One elephant, 51-year-old Swarna, began to run around his enclosure in a circle, like a bronco sledding. While waiting for my Uber to pull out, I sat next to a mother and daughter who had flown into DC for the Fourth of July and was advising Dad, who was still at the hotel, to skip the zoo: The heat was “worse than Disney.”
I ended my adventure at one of DC’s crowded community pools. A mother of two, Lanay Brown, told me that she had brought her children and nieces to the pool many weeks since school let out. Today was the first time they had to wait in line to enter. Pop and rap music blasted from the speakers. Max, who turns 1 in four days, sat by the kiddie pool in his wading pool, biting. His father, Andre, who had moved to DC from Florida, told me it was the hottest he’d felt since leaving the state five years ago.
I’m also a Floridian, but Florida, to be completely honest, has never tried me like this. I got into the pool with my clothes on and felt a sense of relaxation that I can only imagine was similar to what DC residents felt many summers ago. I went home thinking that this was probably the most American day of my life, with a blaring song and fighter jets and lots of patriotic T-shirts. It was definitely hotter.
