Trump’s Triumphal Arch Completes A Longstanding National Aspiration
It is a national embarrassment that policy makers have neglected for more than 100 years to build a monument on this circle to honor our nation and its veterans.
President Trump has honored our nation and its noble veterans throughout both terms of his presidency. Now, President Trump is planning to complete a long overdue project to honor our nation’s veterans by building a monumental arch on Memorial Circle at the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery.
It is a national embarrassment that policy makers have neglected for more than 100 years to build a congressionally authorized monument on this circle to honor our nation and its veterans. As chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, I applaud President Trump’s historic efforts to build a monumental arch at Memorial Circle, and will vote to approve this project.
In 1925, Congress enacted a law authorizing the executive branch to construct a monumental project linking the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery. The centerpiece of this project would be a monumental plaza on Columbia Island between Robert E. Lee’s home atop Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.
Congress envisioned that this plaza would symbolize the enduring unity of North and South and provide a fitting entrance to the cemetery where our grateful nation has laid its veterans to rest. Under the original plan, two massive 166-foot columns topped by allegorical figures would dominate the plaza.
The 1925 Act was the culmination of a decades-long campaign to create a monumental landscape linking Washington, D.C. and Virginia, North and South. President Andrew Jackson promoted such a project as “a symbol of the firmly established union of the North and South,” and Daniel Webster to span the river “with arches of ever-enduring granite, symbolical of the firmly established union of the North and the South.”
After the Civil War, Congress was inundated with numerous proposals for a project. The famous 1902 McMillan Plan, which still governs DC’s planning, called for a monumental project to bridge North and South.
Finally, in 1925, Congress enacted the recommendation of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission and tasked the executive branch with constructing the project, including the “monumental treatment” of Columbia Island, subject to design changes that in the executive branch’s “discretion may be found to be necessary or advisable.” Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant III served as the executive director of the project (and later as chairman of the National Capital and Parks Planning Commission).
The government completed the Memorial Bridge phase of the project, but sadly never finished the Columbia Island portion. Due to both the Great Depression and issues with a nearby (and now gone) air field, the monumental columns were abandoned in the 1930s. The fountains framed by 65-foot, Roman forum-like columns, which were to replace the monumental columns, were also never constructed. Instead, in the 1940s, the government installed a placeholder traffic circle, now known as Memorial Circle, which remains there. --->READ MORE HERE
Trump says his triumphal arch to be ‘top grade military complex’:
The president says the monument would house drones, snipers and ammunition.
President Donald Trump’s long-envisioned triumphal arch is getting a tactical upgrade — before it has even been built.
Trump announced Sunday that he had agreed to turn the planned monument — which will be placed at the head of the Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River — into what he described as a “top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch,” complete with drones, snipers and ammunition storage.
The president said on Truth Social that the changes come “At the strong request of the United States Military, and for National Security purposes.” He offered no additional details about the military’s involvement, the project’s cost or how the proposed complex would operate.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration determined that the proposed arch would not pose a hazard to airplanes arriving at and departing from Washington Reagan National Airport.
The FAA and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The project has generated significant controversy over concerns about the design and traffic congestion during construction. According to a National Park Service assessment released in June — before Trump’s proposed tactical additions — the project was initially expected to take two to three years with construction crews working in two 10-hour shifts daily. --->READ MORE HERE
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK
here, GETTR
here, and TWITTER
here.
No comments:
Post a Comment