Why are there trenches in front of the whitehouse?

[mattig]

Hidy ho all,

I'm running through this game again, and I've always wondered. Why are there trenches in front of the white house? Was DC attacked before the bombs fell? Or were they dug after the fallout?

[Incunabulum]

Both?

Could be DC was assaulted by the Chinese, or even by home grown revolutionaries and then more trenches dug in the 'post-bomb' timeframe as others occupy the area.

And possibly neither. The trenches could have been dug in 'just in case'.

[Damiarch]

Foiling snipers*nods*

[Meatpipe]

I figure they were dug by either the super mutants or the Talon Company, because they are fighting over who would own the building.

[=CrimsoN=]

Good question. The Chinese were only in small pockets as spies so they couldn't have been dug in the pre-war, and the Super Mutants aren't intelligent enough to bother digging them. I figure it was the Brotherhood for whatever reason, perhaps to "fortify" the area since there are also traps in the bunkers, but they are more sophisticated than normal super mutie type traps (they prefer the bear traps and the bunkers use grenade traps).

Then again it's Fallout 3. Many questions few answers.

still love the game though

[Liberated Cyborg]

The supermutants ARE soldiers though, thats what they are bred for. They may be dumb, but it doesn't take a genius to get dug in and fortify wherever you are staging from. There are numerous mutant camps in the DC ruins and wasteland where they have done just that. Beyond that, Talon Company or BoS is also likely to have fortified and dug trenches.

I kind of get the feeling all three are responsible. One faction started fortifying it, and when they got overrun, whoever took over added on, and so on and so forth. The mutants are just the latest group to be King of the Hill.

I doubt it was chinese or pre-great war though. That was some two hundred years ago, the trenches would have been eroded, filled in, flooded, whatever over time.

[=CrimsoN=]

Originally posted by Crashen:

The supermutants ARE soldiers though, thats what they are bred for. They may be dumb, but it doesn't take a genius to get dug in and fortify wherever you are staging from. There are numerous mutant camps in the DC ruins and wasteland where they have done just that. Beyond that, Talon Company or BoS is also likely to have fortified and dug trenches.

I kind of get the feeling all three are responsible. One faction started fortifying it, and when they got overrun, whoever took over added on, and so on and so forth. The mutants are just the latest group to be King of the Hill.

I doubt it was chinese or pre-great war though. That was some two hundred years ago, the trenches would have been eroded, filled in, flooded, whatever over time.

Ehhh that's somewhat true. Probably was all 3 groups.

[› bye13]

Just gonna make comment that the trenches are not infront of the White House (Which is just a crater on Penn. Ave.) The trenches in the mall are between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.

With the area being disputed between super mutants, Talon Company, and small groups of Brotherhood (The bunker in middle of mall has some dead Brotherhood in it, along with some battlements having dead brotherhood). So I would agree with Crashen that they were dug after the Great War, and probably has changed hands over time.

[Eve]

Originally posted by eFeM:

I figure they were dug by either the super mutants or the Talon Company, because they are fighting over who would own the building.

i never really thought of it until now but i always kind of assumed this was the case.