3. There’s Been Some Interesting Graffiti On The Arch

Water shoots up from the fountain in front of the Washington Square Arch

Before 1980, arch was extensively covered in graffiti. In the 1990s the Parks Department went through intense efforts to clean the arch of its graffiti and proceeded to coat it with an anti-graffiti coating to prevent any more vandalism. Mr. Krawchuk from the Parks Department in an interview with the Wall Street Journal said “the messages were fascinating as we were taking off layers of paint […] Viet-nam era stuff.”