A group of Northern Virginia state lawmakers is urging the National Park Service to reject President Trump’s planned 250-foot “triumphal arch” near Arlington National Cemetery and Memorial Bridge.
In a letter sent Monday, 25 Democratic senators and delegates asked the agency to find that the arch would harm historic sites and to “decline to approve it.” Their districts cover Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax and other parts of Northern Virginia — the communities, they wrote, “most directly affected by this project.”
The signers include Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D) and Arlington’s representatives in Richmond, among them Sen. Barbara Favola (D) and Del. Patrick Hope (D). In all, 12 state senators and 13 delegates signed on.
The lawmakers filed their comments during the public comment period for a federal review of the arch’s effect on historic properties, conducted under the National Historic Preservation Act. Their central objection is that the project would sever one of the country’s most carefully protected vistas:
“The Arlington Memorial Bridge, completed in 1932 and conceived under the McMillan Plan, was deliberately designed with a low, horizontal profile to preserve an uninterrupted ceremonial sightline from the Lincoln Memorial across the Potomac to Arlington House and Arlington National Cemetery… A 250-foot monument placed at Memorial Circle would sever this protected viewshed and permanently alter a landscape composition that has been carefully safeguarded for nearly a century.”
At 250 feet, the arch would rise more than two and a half times the height of the 99-foot Lincoln Memorial, the letter notes. The lawmakers also say it would intrude on the “solemn” gateway to the cemetery “over the documented objections of veterans and Gold Star families.”
The letter raises a transportation and a safety alarm as well. Construction and permanent changes to traffic circulation would degrade an already strained commuter corridor “for years to come,” the lawmakers wrote. And they warn that the site sits beneath the flight paths into Reagan National Airport, calling for “rigorous, independent review” of a 250-foot structure’s effect on aviation safety before any approval.
They also accuse the administration of rushing the process — allowing only “roughly ten days” for public comment and advancing the project “without the congressional authorization” they say the Commemorative Works Act requires. The administration has promoted the arch as a monument to the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The letter was copied to the region’s congressional delegation — including Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Rep. Don Beyer — and to local leaders such as Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti.
Federal officials have lined up against the arch too. Beyer, who has introduced a bill to block it, criticized the construction timeline this week, writing that it would bring years of lane closures to one of the region’s busiest corridors.
This plan would require years of lane closures and major disruptions along one of our most critical transportation corridors. A traffic nightmare in the making.
Even setting aside the obvious illegality of this project, the public deserves a full accounting of its impacts. https://t.co/htJ6ZMwyKa
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) June 15, 2026
Beyer and Warner took aim at the project again at a recent event marking the completion of construction on the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
“I’ve yet to meet anybody in Northern Virginia that’s supportive of the arch,” Warner told FFXnow. He said he had “no idea where the funding would come from,” and likened any private-funding pledge to the promises made about the White House ballroom “and then there was an attempt to put public funding.” Any parks legislation he backs, Warner added, “would not include a Trump arch.”
Beyer said he hadn’t met a supporter in D.C. or Virginia either, calling the arch “this incredibly tasteless sacrilege on the landscape.”
The project has moved quickly. New renderings emerged in the spring, a federal commission approved the concept and later its design, and survey crews began work near Memorial Circle. This month, the administration outlined a year-round construction schedule, and the project cleared another review despite concerns about sightlines from the cemetery. The administration has signaled it intends to press ahead and may not seek congressional approval.
The lawmakers asked the Park Service to extend the comment period, to bring Virginia and its localities in as formal consulting parties, and to weigh a “no-build alternative” along with less intrusive ways of marking the country’s 250th anniversary.
