Two Vast and Trunkless Legs of Stone

Earlier this summer the National Park Service issued a series of reports about the triumphal arch proposed for Memorial Circle in Washington, D.C.

Those reports can be downloaded from this webpage.

One document, for instance, is a summary of the 100,936 public comments on this project (P.D.F. download; much smaller addendum).

The summary aggregates the points citizens have made, not counting how many people expressed particular ideas. Those points are overwhelmingly negative. (Some groups have filed suit to block the project.)

Appendix D (P.D.F. download) is a table of historic sites that could be adversely affected, directly or indirectly, by the arch. Those affected sites are:
1. Memorial Avenue Corridor Cultural Landscape
2. Arlington Memorial Bridge and Associated Features
3. Lady Bird Johnson Park Cultural Landscape
4. Arlington National Cemetery Historic District
5. Arlington House Historic District
6. Arlington House (Robert E. Lee Memorial)
7. Arlington House Cultural Landscape
8. Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Grove
9. Mount Vernon Memorial Highway Historic District
10. Lincoln Memorial Cultural Landscape
11. Lincoln Memorial
12. National Mall Site and National Mall Historic District
13. The Mall Cultural Landscape
14. Washington Monument
15. Washington Monument and Grounds Historic District
16. Washington Monument and Grounds Cultural Landscape
17. Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway Historic District
18. East and West Potomac Park Historic District
19. L'Enfant Plan of the City of Washington, District of Columbia
20. Arlington Ridge Park
21. Pentagon
22. Fort Myer National Historic Landmark District
23. George Mason Memorial
24. Thomas Jefferson Memorial Cultural Landscape

On 28 August, the N.P.S. press office issued a new document titled “Triumphal Arch Assessment of Effect (Revised)”.

In this report, the adverse effects table is Appendix L, part of the main file. It adds to the sites expected to suffer adverse effects:
25. World War II Memorial
26. Thomas Jefferson Memorial
27. United States Capitol
28. Georgetown Historic District
29. Old Naval Observatory
30. Observatory Hill Historic District
31. Alban Towers Apartment Building
32. American Institute of Pharmacy Building
33. Halcyon House
34. Francis Scott Key Bridge
35. National Cathedral
36. National War College
37. Vigilant Firehouse
38. Bridge #5020
39. Mount Vernon Memorial Highway North Cultural Landscape Inventory
40. Old Warehouse Area and Ground Maintenance Complex
41. Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

Nonetheless, that latest report states:

Placing the Triumphal Arch within the George Washington Memorial Parkway is consistent with the park’s purpose as a scenic roadway honoring the nation’s first president and protecting the cultural and natural resources that frame the Potomac River corridor. The Arch’s role in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States aligns with the Parkway’s long-standing function as a landscape dedicated to reflection on national ideals, unity, and sacrifice.

News media have reported this report as the N.P.S. “approving” of the construction, which technically it is, but only because the political appointees atop the Department of the Interior have insisted on rubber-stamping the President’s grandiose ideas.

Back in October 2025, when Donald Trump started waving around models of the arch, Time reported:

At the end of a press conference in the Oval Office Wednesday before the dinner, Trump was asked about the arch, of which a model sat on his desk. “Who is it for?” asked CBS reporter Ed O’Keefe. “Me. It’s going to be beautiful” replied President Trump.

Nothing about the Sestercentennial, “national ideals, unity, and sacrifice,” or “honoring the nation’s first president,” much less protecting cultural and natural resources.

“Me.”