National Park Service acknowledges Trump's D.C. triumphal arch will harm historic sites

National Park Service officials have acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch for Washington, D.C., will unavoidably harm historic sites in the capital but should proceed anyway.

A 22-page memorandum of agreement obtained by The Washington Post finds officials admitting that the construction of the 250-foot arch – its precise height intended to honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – will have “adverse effects [that] cannot be fully avoided.”

However, they also write that its proposed location at Memorial Circle, a roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery, cannot be altered because it is “central to the undertaking.”

Veterans groups and historical preservation societies have launched a legal challenge against the planned monument, arguing it will overshadow the cemetery where America’s fallen soldiers are buried and intrude upon the solemnity of the corridor approaching it from the Lincoln Memorial.

Paul Eaton, a retired major general and VoteVets activist whose father died in the Vietnam War and is buried at Arlington, said in a recent campaign video that Trump’s plans were “entirely inappropriate and border on sacrilege.”

Gold Star mother Karen Meredith, whose son died in the Iraq War and was likewise laid to rest at the cemetery, said in the same video: “We don’t need tourists overlooking funerals. I’m just appalled.”

In the memo, the NPS officials do offer to make a series of steps they suggest might mitigate the arch’s impact like putting up new signs, launching a website to explain the project to the public and scheduling construction so as to avoid clashes with military burial ceremonies.

“NPS recognizes that Memorial Circle is located within a highly sensitive historic and commemorative landscape and that the undertaking’s location contributes to adverse effects to historic properties whose significance is associated with setting, design, feeling, association, spatial organization, circulation, and contributing views and vistas,” the agreement states.

A spokesman for the Department of the Interior told the Post: “Throughout the consultation process, Interior has received over 100,000 public comments, has accepted dozens of organizations as consulting parties, and has extended comment periods to allow for more robust discussion.”

White House spokesman Davis Ingle previously told The Independent: “The Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle is going to 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.”

The Independent has reached out to the NPS, the Interior and to the White House for further comment.

Disputing the Interior’s claim to transparency, Charles Birnbaum, founder of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, said in a statement: “The administration is being very transparent in their overt hostility to public input and the regulatory process and the result will be to permanently disfigure one of the nation’s most revered and richly symbolic cultural landscapes.”

Construction on the arch is due to begin next week, according to an announcement made by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum earlier this month. It was previously reported that builders will be working 20 hours a day to realize Trump’s vision.