Virginia County Sues to Block Construction of Trump’s Memorial Arch

The Board of Arlington County, Virginia, filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block the construction of President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch in Washington.

The 250-foot structure, inspired by the 164-foot Arc de Triomphe in Paris, would stand on an island in Memorial Circle on Columbia Island, at the western end of Arlington Memorial Bridge. Plans included a mezzanine at 166 feet, a 24-foot observation deck, and a 60-foot statue of Lady Liberty.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved the proposal in April. Trump said on Sept. 20 that the proposed arch would also serve as a military facility capable of storing and deploying drones and positioning snipers.

In a 35-page lawsuit, the Arlington County Board said the proposed arch would obstruct the line of sight between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. It added that the arch would harm public safety in Arlington by congesting roads needed for emergency transport services.

The board also warned that the arch “threatens to increase noise and air pollution in Arlington by necessitating the diversion of certain flights into and out of Reagan National Airport.”

It argued that using the arch to store large stockpiles of ammunition and as a staging point for drones and snipers would increase the risk of accidents, given its proximity to commuters and tourists.

“The National Park Service, the agency responsible for projects on national park land such as Memorial Circle, is proceeding full-speed toward ground-disturbing construction. Although the agency has claimed that a final decision to construct the Arch has not yet been made and purports to be engaged in a routine decisional process, that rushed process appears to be a pretext designed to shore up justifications for building the Arch in accordance with the President’s repeated marching orders,” the lawsuit stated.

The lawsuit named the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and acting National Park Service director Jessica Bowron as defendants.

“The Arlington County Board has filed this lawsuit because our community has the most to lose from this egregious and unlawful proposed project,” Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said in a statement by Democracy Forward, which partnered with the Arlington County Attorney’s Office to represent the board.

De Ferranti said the county board had participated in the review process and raised concerns about the proposed arch’s negative impacts on Arlington residents.

“Despite these concerns and that process not being complete, it was recently, unilaterally, announced that the project will move forward anyway—entirely disregarding protocol and months of work,” he said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the National Park Service and the Interior Department for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The National Capital Planning Commission approved preliminary building plans in July but stated that issues must be addressed before final review, including the project’s height, effect on transportation, and aviation safety lighting. Commissioners also requested that the applicants give a justification for the project’s height.

In April, then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the arch’s height is intended to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary. She described the project as an architectural masterpiece meant to celebrate American history and foster patriotism across political lines.

“Great nations build beautiful structures that cultivate national pride and love of country, and this triumphal arch should be a project that all Americans, all political persuasions, can support,” Leavitt said at the time.

Tom Gantert and Jackson Richman contributed to this report.