Federal officials acknowledge that President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch will unavoidably harm historic sites if built as planned, but they say the project must move forward, according to a National Park Service document and emails obtained by The Washington Post.
Trump’s 250-foot-tall proposed arch would be built in Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout tucked inside Washington’s boundaries near Arlington National Cemetery. Historic preservationists, veterans groups and others have called on the administration to shrink the monument’s planned size or build it elsewhere, warning that the towering structure would overshadow the cemetery, interrupt the solemn corridor that was intended between the cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, and create other disruptions.
National Park Service officials agree that the arch would adversely affect the cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial and several dozen other historic sites.
The “adverse effects cannot be fully avoided,” Park Service officials wrote in a document circulated Tuesday and obtained by The Washington Post. But, they said, the project cannot be constructed somewhere else because “the proposed location at Memorial Circle is central to the undertaking,” according to the NPS document.
The document is a proposed agreement that the administration wants local historic-preservation officers to sign onto as part of a federally required process to offer feedback on the project.
#national #document
Trump’s 250-foot-tall proposed arch would be built in Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout tucked inside Washington’s boundaries near Arlington National Cemetery. Historic preservationists, veterans groups and others have called on the administration to shrink the monument’s planned size or build it elsewhere, warning that the towering structure would overshadow the cemetery, interrupt the solemn corridor that was intended between the cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, and create other disruptions.
National Park Service officials agree that the arch would adversely affect the cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial and several dozen other historic sites.
The “adverse effects cannot be fully avoided,” Park Service officials wrote in a document circulated Tuesday and obtained by The Washington Post. But, they said, the project cannot be constructed somewhere else because “the proposed location at Memorial Circle is central to the undertaking,” according to the NPS document.
The document is a proposed agreement that the administration wants local historic-preservation officers to sign onto as part of a federally required process to offer feedback on the project.
#national #document
1 day ago
