A big fib
Ever wonder why there’s a huge hippo on the corner of 21st and H Street on the campus of George Washington University? Don’t try finding the answer online, because GWU blogs, urban legend site Snopes, a Facebook page and even the school’s Web site all give the wrong story behind the fabled “river horse.”
Former GWU president Stephen Trachtenberg, the man behind the purchase, revealed the truth on Tuesday morning.
Addressing the Aspen Institute about his new book, “Big Man on Campus,” he said it all began during a visit to Rhode Island, where his wife was called back to D.C. for work reasons, leaving him to wander around a small town and eventually into a bar. After he “finished drinking his lunch,” he ran into a small roadside flea market, chatted up a seller who provided him with even more alcohol, whereupon he ended up purchasing the huge bronze hippo because he “felt bad.” A few weeks later, after forgetting about the purchase altogether, it was delivered to his house, whereupon his wife immediately forwarded it to the GWU campus.
Trachtenberg then declared it a “Presidential gift to the class” and had a plaque made to adorn it. The history on the plaque is a complete fabrication, stating that George and Martha Washington watched hippos “cavort in the [Potomac] shallows from the porch of their beloved Mount Vernon.”
