The White House Press Briefing Room, where the U.S. press secretary stands behind a podium and fields questions from a pack of reporters, is an iconic place.
What most people probably don’t know, however, is that everyone in that room is standing on top of a boarded-up old swimming pool.
The 16 meters long pool underneath the briefing room was built in the 1930s for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the wheelchair-bound president who liked to swim for exercise.
According to WhiteHouse-Museum.org, “the president’s pool was a modern-day showcase of technology, featuring underwater lighting, sterilisers and the latest gadgets.”
Roosevelt swam in it almost daily, as did President Truman and President Kennedy.