Lawyer says 250-foot Trump arch disrupts historic sightlines cherished by veterans seeking burial at Arlington
President Donald Trump's proposed 250-foot arch at Memorial Circle in Washington, D.C.—which he said would be the largest in the world—is being opposed by three Vietnam veterans who say the...
By Fox News · Fox News
President Donald Trump's proposed 250-foot arch at Memorial Circle in Washington, D.C.—which he said would be the largest in the world—is being opposed by three Vietnam veterans who say the project would block views between the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery , and Arlington House, some of the most well-known views in and around the city. Veterans Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes, and Jon Gundersen—along with architectural historian Calder Loth—have been engaged in a months-long legal battle with the Trump administration over the "Great Triumphal Arch". "Our plaintiffs are three Vietnam veterans and an architectural historian. All of them have a deep personal relationship with Arlington National Cemetery," Nicolas Sansone, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group representing the plaintiffs, told Fox News Digital. "Two of our veteran plaintiffs hope to be buried there." DEMS UNLOAD ON TRUMP’S LATEST DC UPDATE WITH ‘CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST’ BROADSIDE, LEGAL PUSH Trump has said the arch should be built near Arlington National Cemetery, which serves as the final resting place for more than 400,000 military service members. Critics of the project contend that the planned structure is disrespectful to the solemn character of the cemetery. In addition, the Trump administration acknowledged in a planning document that the project will have "adverse effects on historic properties". "Such adverse effects cannot be fully avoided while retaining the location-dependent purpose of the undertaking," the National Park Service wrote in the document. The nation's capital was designed to keep historic landmarks from being obscured by other structures, Sansone said. LINCOLN MEMORIAL'S HIDDEN 15,000-SQUARE-FOOT UNDERCROFT OPENS TO THE PUBLIC AFTER A CENTURY UNDERGROUND "One of the sort of central design features is that the capital has been laid out in a very deliberate way to create this uninterrupted view between the Lincoln Memorial on the east side of the Potom…