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A century ago, as lawmakers and architects mulled where to put a new memorial to the late President Abraham Lincoln, one location stood apart: the western edge of the National Mall, on what was then the marshy mudflats of the Potomac River.
The site stands on the same axis as the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument, forming a straight line between the government, the president who founded it and the president credited with saving it. And it is directly across the river from Virginia's Arlington House, the former home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that sits on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.
None of that is a coincidence.
"It's not just the memorials themselves that have meaning, but the relationship spatially between different memorials carries symbolic meaning," says Neil Flanagan, an architect and public historian in D.C. "The Potomac River was the border between the North and South, nominally, during the Civil War; It's literally crossing the border and trying to heal those wounds."
Smack-dab in the middle of this stretch, inside a traffic circle on the Virginia side of the bridge, is where President Trump wants to build his triumphal arch.
The proposed structure would be 250 feet tall, more than double the height of the Lincoln Memorial. That's concerning to preservationists and members of the public who have expressed opposition to the project at every turn — in large part because it would obstruct this significant line of sight.
"The connection of the Lincoln Memorial, representing Lincoln himself, to the home of the leader of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee, was designed to help heal the wounds of the war that tore apart the nation … to disrupt this view would disrupt this reconciliation," said architectural historian Alison Hoagland, one of several concerned speakers at the Commission of Fine Arts' May meeting.
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The commission, an independent federal agency that advises on plans for monuments, memorials and federal buildings, is packed with Trump appointees. It speedily granted the design final approval at its last meeting, despite unanswered questions about its sculptural finishes, the administration's dismissal of some of the panel's recommendations, and considerable public pushback.
But the project still has more legal and procedural hurdles to clear — including a lawsuit by Vietnam War veterans who say it disrespects those buried at the cemetery and requires congressional authorization. Democrats agree, though Trump has said, "We don't need anything from Congress."
On Thursday, the arch will go in front of the National Capital Planning Commission, a federal urban planning agency that's also stacked with Trump allies, at a public meeting where dozens of concerned citizens are poised to speak.
A staff report released in advance suggests the body will grant the most preliminary step of approval. That would allow the commission to make recommendations and request more information — including about the status of several historic preservation and environmental reviews that are required by federal law but have not yet been publicly announced.
The commission received nearly 1,700 written comments on the arch ahead of Thursday's meeting.
Commenters' vigorous objections include concerns about public safety (for cars, pedestrians and incoming flights at nearby Reagan Washington National Airport); the loss of the historic viewline, the structure's scale, tone and proximity to the cemetery; and accusations of a presidential vanity project. Trump has framed the arch as a celebration of the nation's upcoming 250th anniversary, though he said in October that it was intended to honor "Me."
When asked about the arch obstructing the vista, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told NPR on Wednesday that it will be "one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C. but throughout the world."
"It will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250 year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today," Ingle wrote over email.
The vista has a purpose. Critics say the arch does not
In the early 1900s, a Senate commission set out to improve the design and appearance of Washington, D.C.'s National Mall — which at that point was a patchwork of brick Victorian buildings and scattershot public parks, criss-crossed by train tracks from a nearby train station.
The McMillan Plan of 1902, named after the senator who spearheaded it, laid out a comprehensive vision for the monumental core and park system of the nation's capitol.
It included a return to the grand, tree-lined promenade conceptualized by architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant when he first designed the city's layout in 1791. And it identified sites for some major additions, including the long-discussed Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Memorial Bridge.
The McMillan Plan was never formally adopted — in part because its namesake died the year it came out — but bits and pieces were implemented gradually. The Lincoln Memorial officially opened in 1922, after eight years of construction and roughly half a century after Congress authorized it. The bridge opened to traffic a decade later.
"Arlington Memorial Bridge was intentionally designed with a low profile to respect the visual and symbolic vistas connecting the National Mall and Arlington National Cemetery," Elizabeth Merritt, deputy general counsel at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, told the Commission for Fine Arts in May, calling it "one of the most symbolic landscape vistas in Washington, D.C."
The Virginia side of the 2,163-foot long bridge is dotted with informational plaques about the vista and the bridge itself, describing it as a "memorial to the final triumph of the idea of a permanent and complete Union."
Those signs greet the cyclists, joggers and cemetery visitors who use the bridge's sidewalks. The fine print may not be visible to the thousands of commuters who drive over it every day (the Department of Transportation estimated that number at 68,000 in 2020), but the view — of the back of the Lincoln Memorial on the D.C. side, and the main gate of Arlington National Cemetery at the bottom of the hill beneath Lee's house — speaks for itself.
Caren Yglesias, an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland's School of Landscape Architecture, says a shorter arch might be less obstructive, but not without its own drawbacks.
"If it were smaller, that would help. But you have to go back to: What the hell is the purpose?" she said, contrasting it with how Paris' Arc de Triomphe — at 164 feet high — very clearly commemorates the military victories of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Critics don't just say the bridge is an inappropriate site for the arch — Flanagan, the D.C. architect, says "this is a really weird location to put anything." He says a nearly 19-story building with "almost nothing inside" is a strange use of the traffic circle, in addition to all the public safety questions it raises. The architects behind the project have said it will include an observation deck, informational displays and potentially a cafe and gift shop.
"If I were to do something with this space, I would really want to see it as more of a holistic replanning of the memorial axis that includes trying to figure out how to move traffic and people around a little bit more easily," Flanagan added.
When asked about criticisms of the arch, a spokesperson from the Department of the Interior told NPR that "great nations build beautiful structures and works of art that cultivate national pride and love of country."
Critics argue there are cheaper, better ways to celebrate the country's 250th anniversary than embarking on a structure that could take years to build and would permanently alter the city's landscape.
"You can do things that are people-oriented without building something," Yglesias said, pointing to commemorative coins and July 4th firework displays (Trump is planning both of those things). "You can celebrate it without turning it into, as if the whole country is a cemetery that has to be littered with physical records of something that ignores all of our problems."
Of course, this isn't the only physical change Trump is making to D.C. Trump said Wednesday that the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool — one of his other controversial projects — is set to be refilled imminently after its weekslong blue resurfacing.
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