Judge stops construction of arch at Arlington National Cemetery as key committee votes to approve

Within an hour after a federal commission approved construction of a 250-foot arch Thursday between the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, a federal judge blocked any work from starting, siding with three Vietnam veterans and other plaintiffs who have sued to stop construction. 

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan cited harms to the environment, traffic and costs to the governments of Washington, D.C. and the state of Virginia, which joined the suit last week.  

“The harm is certain,” Chutkan wrote. “Defendants initially notified the court that construction could begin as early as November 5, 2026, if the [National Capital Planning Commission, or NCPC] approves the project at its meeting that day and the Department of the Interior authorizes construction.”  

The judge’s announcement followed a nine-hour hearing and vote on the project by the NCPC, a commission responsible for reviewing buildings, monuments and memorials in Washington.

During the hearing, 130 members of the public testified, more than 90% of whom opposed it, and 1,000 people submitted written statements. The group, which included veterans, lawmakers, architectural historians, preservationists and others, discussed the arch’s planned location, size, purpose and potential as a tourist attraction. 

They expressed concern about the impact near Arlington National Cemetery, the burial ground of more than 400,000 service members, their families and public figures.

“Placing a gigantic tourist attraction directly along that historic corridor would be a desecration to the memory of our war dead,” speaker Meg Trumbull Cowan said during the public comment portion. 

“If you approve this, you will have trivialized the objection of veterans who view Memorial Circle as the entry to the sacred Arlington National Cemetery rather than a tourist overlook for intrusive gawking or a perch for snipers,” local resident Meg Maguire said. 

An Army caisson team carries the remains of a soldier during burial services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. (Kevin Wolf/AP)

NCPC Chairman Mark Paoletta said the arch represented a “generational security opportunity” to protect Washington, D.C., referring to an announcement last month by the president that the facility would serve as a monument to the nation’s 250th anniversary but also would host snipers and store drones and ammunition.

“President Trump’s historic vision for a monumental arch at Memorial Circle would complete a project over a century in the making, and honor our nation and her veterans, and provide the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery with the monumental gateway it deserves,” Paoletta said. 

Three-dimensional modeling shows that given its size, the arch would block a portion of the cemetery view from the Lincoln Memorial and cast shadows on thousands of graves, including President John F. Kennedy’s. It also would completely obstruct the view of the Lincoln Memorial from Arlington House, the former home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. 

Kimberly Moyers, a Navy veteran from Texas, spoke in favor of the structure, saying she fully supports it for herself and fellow veterans. 

“Let the shadow cast by the monument represent the never-ending burden we veterans carry. A shadow I wake up with every morning and lay down with every night,” Moyers said.

The National Park Service said the arch is appropriate as part of a plan for the Memorial Bridge corridor based on a 1924 plan for the site, which called for two 166-foot slender columns framing the vista between Arlington and the Lincoln Memorial. The NPS supported plans for the arch, saying it would honor “America’s founding principles.” 

Commissioner Phil Mendelson sought clarity on the arch’s purpose before voting. Citing multiple responses, including that the arch would mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S.; celebrate veterans; serve as a military platform; give Washington an arch that it lacks; or a grand entrance to the city, Mendelson proposed delaying the vote.

“Clearly, we have not received a definitive statement of what the arch commemorates. Without specificity, I cannot judge whether the arch’s site, scale, and form fit its purpose,” Mendelson said. 

The 12-member commission is made up of three persons appointed by President Donald Trump, three members of the executive branch, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, two Republican members of Congress and four members of Washington’s governance, including two people appointed by city Mayor Muriel Bowser. 

Chutkan conducted a hearing Friday to weigh testimony by the three Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian who filed suit Feb. 19 seeking to stop construction of the arch.  

Veterans Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes and Jon Gundersen, joined by Calder Loth, former senior architectural historian for the state of Virginia, sued Trump on Feb. 19 to stop construction, arguing that the building lacked the congressional approval required and would destroy the viewshed between Arlington House across Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial — a sightline intentionally designed to symbolize the unification of the country following the Civil War.

During the hearing, Lemmon said he visits the Vietnam War Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial often, where he takes in the view of Arlington before going to the cemetery to visit the graves of fallen comrades. The arch, he said, would change the experience in a “profound way.” 

“The pain is real. … The idea of having a tourist platform 250 feet up in the air, looking over burials… I find it disruptive and disrespectful. This is hallowed ground,” Lemmon said.

The arch – which has been called the Great Triumphal Arch, the Independence Arch and the New Monumental Arch — is one of several initiatives President Donald Trump has undertaken to alter the landscape of Washington, D.C.

The president has redecorated the Oval Office, demolished the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom, renovated the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument — an effort completed this week after poor workmanship resulted in a peeling liner and increased algae buildup — repaired fountains, added his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, covered four bronze equestrian statues near the Lincoln Memorial in gold leaf and wants to turn a 104-year-old historic public golf course into a luxury facility.

The site of President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch, alongside Arlington National Cemetery, and the Memorial Bridge. (Saul Loeb/Reuters)

Lawsuits were filed to stop several of the initiatives, including the ballroom and the golf course. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Aug. 31 that construction of the ballroom could continue because the plaintiffs in that case, led by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, contended the project was offensive because of its scale and height — an argument the justices said lacked standing.

The high court ruled that the government established it would be harmed if the above-ground portion of the ballroom was not built to the desired scale because it shielded the underground portion of the facility, which will include a national security bunker.

Three weeks after that ruling, Trump announced the arch also would serve as a national security complex, hosting snipers and storing drones and “large quanti

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