The National Park Service issued a report on Friday endorsing President Donald Trump’s proposed memorial arch, a 250-foot structure planned for a location adjacent to Memorial Bridge in Washington. The report acknowledged that the structure would create adverse visual effects on sightlines connecting numerous iconic landmarks, including the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial.
According to the report, the arch would disrupt what the Park Service characterized as historically significant visual relationships that have been deliberately established across Washington’s monuments and sites over decades. The structure would break the alignment between the Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Bridge, and Arlington House, which the report noted was designed to symbolically and physically connect North and South across the Potomac River. The Park Service identified dozens of additional historic properties and structures that would experience impacts, including the National Mall, U.S. Capitol, Georgetown Historic District, National Cathedral, and other sites.
Despite these acknowledged impacts, the Park Service concluded that the location adjacent to Memorial Bridge represented the historically appropriate site for the memorial. The agency argued that the same characteristics making the area sensitive from a preservation standpoint were the characteristics that made it suitable for the arch’s placement. According to the report, avoiding the project’s effects would require either relocating the structure away from its identified site or eliminating the memorial entirely, steps the Park Service said would prevent the undertaking from meeting its stated purpose and need.
The 133-page report is expected to play a significant role in supporting the administration’s position against a legal challenge filed by three veterans and an architectural historian. Nicolas Sansone, an attorney representing the plaintiffs through the Public Citizen Litigation Group, contended that the report confirmed the project would substantially impact the National Mall and constituted a decision that should be made by Congress rather than pursued through executive action.
The arch proposal is one of several projects the Trump administration is pursuing for Washington, including modifications to the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The Commission of Fine Arts, whose commissioners were appointed by Trump, granted initial approval to the design earlier in the summer. The National Capital Area Planning Commission approved the site and preliminary plans in July and is scheduled to revisit the matter in the fall.
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