Construction on Trump's 250-foot arch to start soon, Interior Secretary Burgum says

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Thursday said that construction on President Donald Trump's 250-foot triumphal arch in Washington, D.C. will begin soon.

"We are pleased to announce that after a very long wait (over 125 years!), we are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck," Burgum said in an introductiong to a series of posts on X. 

The project will be located at Memorial Circle and Columbia Island between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. 

"This will be one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture, honoring the history and significance of Arlington Cemetery and befitting the most powerful Capital in the World," Burgum said. 

In his thread on X, Burgum detailed the history of the Columbia Island site, which Congress and various congressionally chartered commissions had decreed a century ago would be "a plaza with fitting architectural adornment in a measure supplemental to the Lincoln Memorial across the river.”

"Despite Congress’s intent, the site became and remains today a barren traffic circle lacking any monumental treatment and significant historic value. In fact, the passage extending from Arlington Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery was meant to serve as an Avenue of Heroes," Burgum explained. 

As with all of Trump's beautification projects he's initiated for D.C., the arch has received pushback from critics concerned about its height and impact on surrounding area. Burgum pointed out in his thread that over 70 major cities and capitols around the world, including London, Paris, Rome and Madrid, have arches.