The Arlington County Board has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop construction of President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot arch in Memorial Circle.
The suit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, makes the Board the first government body to take legal action against the monument. It criticizes the speed at which the project has moved without going through the full review process.
The union representing thousands of flight attendants said Wednesday it has safety concerns about President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch that will be on final approach to Reagan National Airport.
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson said the 250-foot (76 meter) arch compounds multiple safety concerns that she said have gone unaddressed from a deadly January 2025 crash over the Potomac River that killed 67 people.
A crowd of protesters joined several members of Congress and local officials this morning (Thursday) to protest plans for a towering arch in Memorial Circle.
Speakers including U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), senators from Oregon and Illinois, a retired U.S. Army colonel and Arlington County Board member J.D. Spain Sr. kicked off a full day of demonstrations planned near the traffic circle between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the massive arch he wants to build between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery would become a “top grade military complex” able to host drones and snipers while storing ammunition.
It is one more example of how Trump is insisting that his initiatives to beautify the White House and the city are also serving a defensive purpose. Trump has been calling the new White House ballroom a “military complex” and arguing it is necessary for national security purposes.
Excavation work is set to start over the next two weeks at Memorial Circle, where the Trump administration plans to build a towering, gilded arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
The administration announced the timeline Thursday. The project is facing a lawsuit, and critics say it will disrupt historic sightlines in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new National Park Service report backs President Donald Trump’s proposed arch, despite what it says are adverse effects to the sightline between a host of iconic landmarks in Washington, including the Washington Monument and Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.
The report released Friday says the 250-foot-tall (76-meter) memorial arch is likely to disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites near its planned location adjacent to Memorial Bridge.
A recent project review by Arlington County planning staff flagged numerous practical concerns about plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery.
Noting incomplete and sometimes inconsistent information in an environmental assessment by the National Park Service, county staff questioned likely impacts on roads, pedestrians, historic views and air traffic if the Trump administration builds a 250-foot arch in the middle of the Memorial Circle roundabout.
The National Park Service is requesting more public input on a plan to build a triumphal arch on the Virginia side of Memorial Bridge.
Respondents have until Thursday, July 30 to submit feedback on President Donald Trump’s plans to build the 250-foot arch in a heavily trafficked roundabout between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plans to build a skyline-altering arch in the nation’s capital won initial approval Thursday from a key federal commission.
The National Capital Planning Commission voted to approve preliminary site and building plans for the 250-foot (76-meter) arch the Republican president wants to build on a traffic circle at the Virginia end of Memorial Bridge from Washington.
The Trump administration’s plan for a 250-foot “triumphal arch” near Memorial Bridge keeps advancing — even as opposition across Northern Virginia keeps growing.
Pitched as a monument to the nation’s 250th anniversary, the arch would rise more than two and a half times the height of the Lincoln Memorial at the western end of Arlington Memorial Bridge. Critics have questioned both its historical basis and its place in the protected vista between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
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.”
Construction of the 250-foot-high triumphal arch that President Donald Trump wants built near Memorial Bridge could occur 20 hours per day, year-round, as officials push to complete the project within three years.
That’s according to a preliminary assessment by the National Park Service.
