U.S.
Army says parade caused minimal damage to Washington streets
By
The Washington Post June 26, 2025
Michael Brice-Saddler, Dan Lamothe, Rachel Weiner
The Washington Post June 26, 2025
Abrams tanks roll down Pennsylvania Avenue during a celebration of the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary on June 14, 2025, in Washington. (Tom Brenner/The Washington Post)
An initial assessment suggests that the 70-ton battle tanks featured in the Army’s 250th birthday celebration parade in D.C. caused minimal damage to city roads, a senior Army official said Wednesday, while estimates show about 198,000 people passed through metal detectors to attend events that day.
Steve Warren, a senior Army spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon that the figure encompasses attendance for the festival and the parade of military equipment on June 14 and comes from Secret Service data.
But because there were separate security checkpoints for the festival and the parade grounds, it was not immediately clear whether people who attended both events were double-counted.
Still, the figure helps show the scale of the Army’s all-day celebration. Security officials said before the event that they were preparing for “hundreds of thousands” of visitors downtown and sought to assuage concerns from D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) about potential damage to city roads caused by multi-ton Abrams tanks and other armored vehicles.
Small dents and cracks can be seen on Constitution Avenue in Washington on June 15, 2025, the morning after the military parade marking the Army's 250th birthday. (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
On Wednesday, Warren said initial assessments from the Army show that precautions taken to protect roads, including fitting tanks with rubber track pads and placing metal plates over intersections where the vehicles turned, kept damage to a minimum.
“A tank ran over a curb, and that curb got broken - crushed,” Warren said. “So, we will be fixing that. But, right now, that’s the only damage that we’ve identified.”
The Army’s total estimated cost for the parade, he added, is still between $25 million and $45 million, a figure that initially included money for potential road repairs.
Warren said a “subterranean” assessment of the roads is ongoing to check whether the parade damaged underground cables or other infrastructure below the surface.
D.C. Department of Transportation officials also did a visual survey of city roads traveled and saw no apparent damage, spokesman German Vigil said.
For the federally controlled roadways, including streets around the Mall and the George Washington Parkway, the National Park Service is waiting one month to make a final assessment on possible damage.
Army units that were involved also are still tallying their costs, Warren said, with vehicles expected back at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday and off-loading to begin there Friday.