President Donald Trump’s proposed 250-foot Triumphal Arch would cast a shadow over presidential memorials, war monuments and thousands of graves each year, according to a digital 3D model created by The Washington Post.
Construction on Trump’s arch could start on Nov. 5 pending final approval from a federal commission stacked with his own appointees. Planned to be built in a traffic circle situated between D.C. and Arlington, the massive structure would change the capital’s visual landscape, breaking up the relatively open air between Arlington National Cemetery and the National Mall.
As the sun rises and sets, the arch’s shadow would move along with it, covering burial sites at the cemetery on 284 days each year, the Post found. The shadow would pass over more than 75,000 graves.
The shadow would recede from the cemetery before it opens most days, but would linger during operating hours on 26 days, the Post reported.
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The Interior Department called the Post’s analysis “flawed” in a statement to The Washington Sun, saying its own internal modeling is more reliable.
The design team in charge of the arch project ran its own solar models and found a period of less than two weeks, at the beginning of daylight saving time, when the arch’s shadow would fall over a portion of the cemetery while it’s open, the Interior Department said.
The Interior Department said it studied the shadow at 8 a.m. (when the cemetery opens), 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. on a handful of days throughout the year.
The Post analyzed the shadow on each day of the year and included times when the cemetery is closed to the public.
The arch has faced multiple legal challenges, including a lawsuit filed by three Vietnam War veterans who argue its construction would, among other things, obstruct the view of Arlington National Cemetery. Local preservation officials have pushed back against the monument, saying Trump administration officials have underestimated how much the “integrity of the affected historic properties would be diminished” by its construction.
The arch’s shadow would cast across Arlington Memorial Bridge and linger over the Lincoln Memorial during the fall and winter, the Post found. In the spring and summer, the shadow would fall on John F. Kennedy’s grave.
The shadow would also fall onto parts of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on more than 30 days of the year, and at times cover the Vietnam and Korean war memorials, the Post found.
The National Park Service previously outlined dozens of historic sites the arch would affect, but said the project should move forward as planned. The park service declined to consider alternate locations for the monument, calling the location “central to the undertaking” of the construction.
Arlington County sued to stop construction earlier this month, arguing the Trump administration failed to complete a legally required environmental review process before barreling ahead with development.
The arch received an early approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a board packed with Trump appointees. The National Capital Planning Commission will consider final approval for the project on Nov. 5.
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