WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s proposed 250-foot-tall (76-meter) memorial arch could disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites near its planned location, according to an assessment by the National Park Service.Many of Washington’s monuments, buildings and sites have been carefully planned over decades to reflect significant moments in the nation’s history and evoke symbolism in being connected by sightline to other sites. The proposed towering gilded arch, which last month received initial approval from a key federal commission, would impact the “integrity” of dozens of those historical properties because it would change “character-defining visual and spatial relationships” between them.The NPS report, published recently, said the immediate project area is located within the Memorial Avenue Corridor cultural landscape, “a nationally significant historic designed landscape extending between the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.”
One of the most obvious elements the report cited is that the arch would break alignment between the Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Bridge and Arlington House that was formerly Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s home.“The bridge alignment and associated ceremonial landscape were intended to physically and symbolically unite North and South through a coordinated monumental composition extending across the Potomac River,” the report said.
