Park Service Backs Trump Arch Despite Sightline Damage

The National Park Service on Friday came out in support of President Donald Trump's proposed memorial arch in Washington — while admitting in its own report that the structure will damage the views connecting some of the capital's most famous landmarks.

The 133-page report finds adverse effects on the sightlines involving the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.

It concludes those impacts cannot be avoided unless the arch is moved or scrapped — and then backs building it anyway.

The Project

The gilded arch would stand 250 feet tall, sited next to Memorial Bridge at Memorial Circle, the span that links the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington.

Washington's monumental core was laid out so that the visual lines between its memorials carry historical meaning. The Park Service report acknowledges the arch would alter those "character-defining visual and spatial relationships."

The report nonetheless argues Memorial Circle is the "historically appropriate location" for the structure, despite the disruption it concedes.