Trump says triumphal arch to be used for snipers, drones
President Trump on Sunday said that the plans for the massive triumphal arch bridging Washington, D.C., and Virginia will incorporate a “top grade military complex.”
Trump said in a Truth Social post that this change to the arch was at the request of the U.S. military “for National Security purposes.”
“I have agreed to convert the magnificent Triumphal Arch, planned since the Civil War Era many years ago, at the Receptive Circle adjoining the Arlington Memorial Bridge, into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch, to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage,” Trump wrote.
He added that the complex will be like none “anywhere in the World.”
“Out of the 59 top cities and Capitals, Washington, D.C., IS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD THAT DOES NOT HAVE A TRIUMPHAL ARCH, but it will now and, by far, the greatest of them all!” his post concludes.
The concept of a complex crucial to national security purposes echoes those made about the White House ballroom, as Trump has said there will be a “massive complex” under the ballroom. Lawyers for the administration have said in court that delays in the construction amount to a national security threat.
The triumphal arch is intended to be a 250-foot-tall arch, which, if completed, would be the tallest in the world. It would tower over the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and would be taller than the world’s tallest arch, the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City.
It would be located along the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the symbolic representation of the reunified U.S., connecting the North and South following the Union victory that ended the Civil War in 1865.
Trump has sought to change Washington’s makeup with several proposed, in-development or completed projects, including a “National Garden of American Heroes,” as well as changes to the White House Rose Garden, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the Kennedy Center.
Trump’s announcement about the military complex comes after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed topping the arch with a “non-standard eternal flame” to make it more noticeable for pilots. The National Park Service added that searchlight projectors would go with the flame.
The FAA said Friday in a hazard study that the arch “would not pose a hazard to aircraft” after a review by safety experts that examined “airspace, air traffic patterns and procedures around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, as well as operations at nearby military/public-use airports.”
The agency said in June that the arch would need red lights, as its website states that structures in Washington that are more than 200 feet tall “should normally be marked and/or lighted,” but an “aeronautical study may reveal that the absence of marking and/or lighting will not impair aviation safety.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said earlier this month that work on the arch would soon begin, though it was not entirely clear if excavation work would begin or if the department was preparing for the start of excavation.
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