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Federal officials are laying more groundwork to begin construction on President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, sharing additional documents that detail the project’s scope and an aggressive timetable for potentially completing work before Trump’s term ends.
According to National Park Service documents posted this month, the administration envisions 20 hours per day of construction on the arch, year-round, in hopes of completing the project within two to three years. Construction experts said that timeline — which would involve two 10-hour daily shifts — is unusually aggressive for a nonemergency project.
The arch also would be built with concrete clad in granite, unlike the nearby Lincoln Memorial and other monuments that were constructed with natural stone like marble and limestone — another way to expedite its construction, experts said.
“He’s obviously in a hurry to try to get this all done before he leaves office,” said Matthew Bell, a University of Maryland architecture professor, commenting on the timeline and materials. “Most of the major monuments in D.C. are stone.”
The Park Service said the project would require large cranes, including one that may be 320 feet tall and another that could be as high as 300 feet. The planned site for the arch is on a flight path to nearby Reagan National Airport, where planes can sometimes fly at around 500 feet of altitude, raising concerns about safety.
The Federal Aviation Administration has said it is reviewing whether the arch’s planned height would present risks to airplanes transiting the area, concluding in a preliminary report last week that the arch would need red blinking lights to alert planes at night. An FAA spokesperson said Tuesday that the agency was still conducting a full study on the project.
FAA, Transportation and Interior Department spokespeople did not respond to questions about whether the additional height of the cranes would pose further risk.
The White House declined to comment on the Park Service documents. Officials said they planned to begin construction as soon as all approvals are received.
“The Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle is going to be one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world,” Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.
Trump has insisted that the 250-foot-tall arch be built to mark America’s 250th anniversary, and two federal panels led by Trump allies have rushed the project through reviews. The arch would be erected at Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery that is tucked inside Washington’s boundaries, and it would represent the president’s most significant change to Washington’s skyline.
The administration is not planning to seek authorization for the project from Congress, drawing rebukes from Democrats who say the president continues to flout long-established laws and norms. Trump has also demolished the White House East Wing to clear space for his planned ballroom, decided unilaterally to renovate the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool, and undertaken other construction projects without going through the usual legally required reviews or seeking approval from Congress.
“Running through all these incidents is an inexplicable disregard for legal process,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), the top Democrat on the Senate’s permanent subcommittee for investigations, wrote in a letter Tuesday to Park Service leaders.
Blumenthal asked for the Park Service to explain and justify its use of urgent procedures, including no-bid contracts, to complete Trump’s projects; to share its internal records on the arch, the Reflecting Pool and other work driven by the president; and to provide a full list of projects underway or under consideration on Park Service land in the D.C. area. The letter was shared with The Washington Post.
Some construction and design firms have declined to work on the arch, worried that they could not meet the administration’s aggressive timeline and wary of the risks of participating in the controversial project, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations around the project.
Fifty-two percent of Americans are against the planned arch, compared with 21 percent who favor it, according to a Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll conducted in April.
The project is also the subject of a lawsuit brought by several military veterans who say the towering structure would alter their visiting experience to nearby Arlington National Cemetery. Lawyers for Public Citizen, a watchdog group that is representing the military veterans, have urged a federal judge to halt the project.
“With every passing day, Defendants’ arch moves closer to construction,” Public Citizen lawyers argued in a filing to U.S. District Judge Tanya Sue Chutkan last week.
Trump administration lawyers have argued that the project should not be halted because it has not officially begun. Administration officials have also said they will provide at least 14 days’ notice before beginning construction of the arch.
The Park Service last week opened a 10-day comment period for the public to weigh in on the arch project. The comment period, which the agency and administration officials have not publicized on their communications channels, according to a Post review, is a legally required step before beginning construction.
The Park Service has acknowledged the potentially adverse effects of the arch on Arlington National Cemetery and other nearby monuments — “all of which derive significance in part from their planned visual, commemorative, and spatial relationships across the Potomac River and through the monumental core,” one report concluded.
The Interior Department last month awarded a contract to Otak Inc., a Portland, Oregon-based architectural firm, to perform compliance-related work related to the arch project. Otak declined to answer questions about the contract and its involvement in the project, referring comment to the Trump administration.
The project has already received approval from the Commission of Fine Arts, which reviews designs for major federal projects. A second panel, the National Capital Planning Commission, is expected to approve the project as soon as next month.
Will Scharf, the Trump-appointed chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, also said last week he believed a federal law limiting the height of construction in Washington should not apply to the arch. The law restricts most construction in Washington to a maximum height of 130 feet.
Meanwhile, Trump officials have declined to include a half-dozen historic preservation and advocacy groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Cultural Landscape Foundation, in a federally required process to consider the arch’s potential effects on historic properties. All of the excluded organizations, which have historically offered input on past federal projects, have sued the Trump administration over the president’s planned ballroom, his Reflecting Pool and other initiatives.
“Each of these organizations brings subject area expertise that could be helpful,” Charles Birnbaum, the president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, wrote in a letter Monday to the Park Service, asking to participate in the process. The letter was shared with The Post.
Watching the US turn more and more into Warhammer 40k shit in real time (aesthetically) has been wild. Between this and the mini gladiatorial arena on the steps of the white house is just
.I have seen the mask fall from capital
type shit multiple times a day now.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Make it a double arch

We’re in for a real first as drama second as farce on this one.
The Arc de Triomphe was started to honour Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz, it was left unfinished for ages until they ended up building it just in time for his mortal remains to return to Paris. This was a bad look so 20 years later a guy goes, ‘this is actually a memorial to all the dead of the revolution’ and sticks a few extra bits of plaster on, the plaster degrades and nobody tries to maintain it, 140 years later everyone’s pretty sure the Arc is about the Hundred Years War or WW2 or something
“Those who don’t know history are…. Honestly unfortunately seemingly doing very well for themselves right now”
tacky-ass welthauptstadt germania type architecture
praying for the funniest thing to happen on the day it’s finished

I know another reason he might want it in “2 to 3 years”
Trump will croak when its not even halfway finished and the next dem pres will continue the project exactly as planned out of civility and respect
Can’t wait to see what President Hunter Biden will do with this
oh hell yes
President Jerkoff Neolib will declare in their inauguration speech…
The American Arch will serve as a symbol that we must be united in dreams and aspirations for a better future. We must not look backward. We must—
-–
Sorry. I got a vomity feeling and I thought I might throw up.
😌
The arch also would be built with concrete clad in granite, unlike the nearby Lincoln Memorial and other monuments that were constructed with natural stone like marble and limestone — another way to expedite its construction, experts said.

Imperium of McMansion
Psh imagine not covering it in gold - what is he- poor?
HomeGoods-ass monument lol
5 over 1 style roman arch.
Let’s think of all the benefits this will bring:
- Someday this will give us a Kelly cartoon that ends with “Fallen Arches :kelly:”.
I guess that’s it.
i used to think the term burgerreich was crude hyperbole btw
Liberals will read the third inauguration part and start shifting the goalposts of their own expectations so that they can get scored on in 2 years.
‘3rd inauguration, no chance he can win the vote count this time!’
shifting the goalposts of their own expectations
Libs really laugh at the republicans doing that but they do it so aggressively too. I guess it’s hard to think clearly when your entire “game plan” is beating the other team. Earlier today - I saw a post by a Bluesky heavy-duty Platner apologist shitlib that said Platner being another Fetterman was no big deal because he’d still be better than Collins.
-–
Ninja edit
I don’t know if these people who are constantly being like, “Uh, actually, Fetterman might be worse than Collins. And what if Platner’s another Fetterman?” actually mean what they say, or what. But yeah, “another Fetterman” would be infinitely preferable to Collins, obviously.
No log in - all posts - https://subium.com/profile/parkermolloy.com/post/3mnws537rds26
Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/parkermolloy.com/post/3mnws537rds26
It’s in a sub-thread to their main post apologizing for Fetterman too.
the Arc de D.Trump is very humorous. rooting for him.
He should go whole hog and call it Arc D. Trump. The libs would be mad about that for literally decades.
And they would never be able to change the name, even if they control all branches of government
Schumer speaks to the media.
“The parliamentarian has ruled against us. At present - we do not have the necessary 2/3rds majority. However - we are forming a committee…”
Nancy pelosi is dead, but her stock portfolio has been given her seat. It voted against, nothing to be done sadly.
her stock portfolio has been given her seat.
I can’t stop laughing at that. But also - fuck.

The planned site for the arch is on a flight path to nearby Reagan National Airport, where planes can sometimes fly at around 500 feet of altitude
He should make it a little bit taller and mandate all incoming flights to go through it.

I thought you have to, well, triumph to unlock that.


















