The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC is about 30m-tall. Photo / Supplied
The White House stands at about 21m-tall. The Lincoln Memorial, roughly 30m. The triumphal arch United States President Donald Trump wants to build would eclipse both if he gets his wish.
Trump has grown attached to the idea of a 76m-tall structure overlooking the Potomac River, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments.
It is a scale that has alarmed some architectural experts who initially supported the idea of an arch but expected a far smaller one.
The planned Independence Arch is intended to commemorate the US’ 250th anniversary.
Built to Trump’s specifications, it would transform a small plot of land between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery into a dominant new monument, reshaping the relationship between the two memorials and obstructing pedestrians’ views.
Trump has considered smaller versions of the arch, including 50m and 37m designs he shared at a dinner last year.
But he has favoured the largest option, arguing that its sheer size would impress visitors to Washington, and that “250 for 250” makes the most sense, the people said.
Architectural experts counter that the size of the monument - installed in the centre of a traffic circle - would distort the intent of the surrounding memorials.
“I don’t think an arch that large belongs there,” said Catesby Leigh, an art critic who conceived of a more modest, temporary arch in a 2024 essay - an idea that his allies championed and brought to the White House.
His allies also passed along Leigh’s recommendation of an architect, Nicolas Leo Charbonneau, who has been retained by the White House to work on the project.
Charbonneau did not respond to requests for comment.
Asked about the arch’s height, the White House today referred to the President’s previous comments.
“The one that people know mostly is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. And we’re gonna top it by, I think, a lot,” Trump said at a White House Christmas reception in December.
The Arc de Triomphe - already one of the world’s largest triumphal arches - measures 50m.
Trump also told Politico in December that he hoped to begin construction of the arch within two months, a timeline that appears unlikely given that White House officials have yet to make the final plans public or submit them to federal review panels.
Memorial Circle, the plot of land that the president has eyed, is controlled by the National Park Service.
The White House reiterated the President’s desire to have an iconic monument.
The arch will become “one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, DC, but throughout the world,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement sent to the Washington Post.
“President Trump’s bold vision will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and be felt by generations to come.”
Washington does not have a triumphal arch, making it unusual among major cities that have built arches to commemorate wars and celebrate milestones, and some historians and civic leaders have long argued that such a monument is needed.
Rodney Mims Cook, an Atlanta-based developer and president of the National Monuments Foundation, proposed a peace arch to Washington leaders in 2000 before the plans were withdrawn in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Cook later built a monumental arch in Atlanta, the Millennium Gate Museum, intended to celebrate Georgia’s history.
Trump this month appointed Cook to the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal panel that would be set to review and approve the design of new monuments in Washington - including the President’s potential arch.
Trump on January 23 also posted images on his Truth Social platform with no comment that depict three versions of a large triumphal arch, including one option with gold gilding - a hallmark of Trump’s construction projects.
Asked about the President’s post, White House officials said that the arch design continues to be refined.
The White House also said the plan to put a large Lady Liberty statue atop the arch, which was included in previous concepts presented by Trump and Charbonneau but not in the president’s Truth Social post, has not been abandoned.
City planners have eyed the land around what is now Memorial Circle for more than a century.
A 1901-1902 report overseen by the Senate Park Commission, which laid the groundwork to construct the National Mall and beautify much of the city’s core, appears to envision some sort of structure in the circle, drawings show.
Architect William Kendall in 1928 also presented plans to the Commission of Fine Arts to construct a memorial there.
Local historians and architectural experts have said that a large arch could change the relationship between several historic sites, including Arlington Memorial Bridge itself, which was intended as a bridge between North and South in the wake of the US Civil War, and memorials for Lincoln and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
“It’s a very sombre corridor,” said John Haigh, the chairman of Benedictine College’s architecture programme, who visited Memorial Circle with his students last year to consider the arch project. “We discussed the gravity of putting an arch there,” particularly one intended to be triumphal.
The structure as planned could obstruct views of Arlington House, the former Lee estate that sits on a hillside in Arlington National Cemetery.
“I would be very concerned about the scale,” said Calder Loth, a retired senior architectural historian for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, warning that a 76m-high arch could alter pedestrians’ views as they approach Arlington National Cemetery from Washington.
“It would make Arlington House just look like a dollhouse - or you couldn’t see it all, with the arch blocking the view.”
They also cautioned that, barring major changes to the circle, it could be difficult for pedestrians to visit a potential monument there, given the busy motor traffic.
Loth also invoked the vantage point from Arlington National Cemetery, where visitors often look across the river towards the Lincoln Memorial and the capital beyond - a view he said the proposed arch would reshape.
“How does it impact the panorama of Washington?” Loth said, invoking a question that he said should guide designers of monuments. “What is supposed to be doing the speaking?”
Leigh initially proposed an 18m arch that could pop up as a temporary structure to mark America’s 250th.
Trump instead wants a permanent arch, more than four times larger, funded with leftover private donations to his White House ballroom project, which he has said could cost about US$400 million.
Publicly identified donors to the ballroom project, such as Amazon, Google and Lockheed Martin, collectively have billions of dollars in contracts before the administration. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.)
Any construction plan for the arch would probably need to go through several review panels and potentially require the sign-off of Congress, given laws around constructing monuments in Washington.
Trump’s interest in enlarging the arch mirrors his desire to expand the White House ballroom, which last year sparked clashes with James McCrery, the architect initially tapped for the project.
Shalom Baranes, the architect now leading that work, told federal review panels in January that White House officials have halted plans to make the ballroom even larger.
Leigh suggested a compromise location that could allow Trump his large monument without imposing on other structures.
“If you’re going to build an arch that big, you should build it in another part of town and one possible site that comes to mind is Barney Circle,” Leigh said, referencing a site in Southeast Washington next to Congressional Cemetery, overlooking the Anacostia River.
“There’s nothing around it competing with it.”
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