Construction of President Donald Trump’s “triumphal arch” in Washington has been given federal approval despite some public opposition.
The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) voted 8-4 on Thursday to allow construction of the planned 250ft (72m) arch, which the Trump administration has said could begin as early as this week despite facing legal challenges.
Trump appointees on the board have said it will be a fitting tribute to US history and to veterans past and present.
Opponents argue it will block the view of Arlington National Cemetery, the resting place of thousands of US soldiers and servicepeople. Some protesters said they would use their bodies to block any construction.
The approval on Thursday evening came after nearly nine hours of public comment.
It is not yet clear when construction of the arch could start, as a number of lawsuits are seeking to block it.
ReutersA rendering of the project’s design from earlier this year includes a golden, winged Lady Liberty statue on the top of the arch, flanked by two gold eagles,. The phrases “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” are inscribed in gold on either side of the structure.
The Trump administration has said the arch would double as a complex to store military equipment – complete with the ability to deploy snipers and drones.
“There will be no facility like this anywhere in the World,” Trump previously wrote on his Truth Social platform. He added that out of “the 59 top cities and Capitals”, Washington is “the only one in the world that does not have a triumphal arch”. He did not specify which cities he was referring to.
Mark Paoletta, the chairman of the NCPC and one of the Trump appointees, said at Thursday’s meeting that the president understood “it’s important to our national identity to display who we are through grand monuments”.
He and other commissioners said the structure fulfils a 100-year plan to build a monumental work on Columbia Island, just as Congress and various commissions intended.
Paoletta added that the arch would honour the nation, its veterans and “provide the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery with the monumental gateway it deserves”.
Opponents have strongly disagreed.
Anne Wright, who spent 29 years in US military and also worked in the diplomatic service, told the BBC she would try to stop any construction.
“We’ll tie ourselves to the bulldozer, we’ve got veterans in wheelchairs and we’ll chain the wheelchairs to these things,” she said.
Wright referenced this week’s midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party lost control of Congress, saying: “[Trump’s] policy of war, of ego, they’ve been rejected.”
Fellow veteran John Pomeroy – who served in the Air Force for six years, including during the Vietnam War, and whose parents are buried at Arlington – said the arch “would lessen the solemn nature of a visit to the cemetery”.
He described Trump’s suggestion that the arch could store military equipment as “silly” and a “half-baked idea”, arguing it would be a target for terrorist attacks.
Like Wright, Pomeroy said he would “impede construction workers as much as I can” if they came to the site to begin work.
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Democratic Congressman Jared Huffman argued in his statement to the commission that the arch would disrupt sightlines not just of Arlington but of the Lincoln Memorial, fracturing “a view meant to underscore the unity and sacrifice of the American people, and doing that with a structure we often associate with emperors or kings who built grand arches as tributes to themselves”.
“This is a tribute to Donald Trump,” Huffman added.
Lawsuits have been filed against the plans, raising concerns about the environment, traffic congestion and safety. There is also a disagreement over whether congressional approval is needed to build the arch.
It is one of several construction projects Trump has proposed for the US capital. That includes at the White House, where he is facing legal challenges over the construction of a ballroom, which is estimated to cost $400m (£300m).
His plans to renovate a 106-year-old golf course, which he has dubbed “trash island”, is also being challenged in the courts.
