The Original 1924 Columbia Island Design Trump Admin Citing To Build Arch

President Donald Trump’s administration is pressing ahead with its plan for the 250-foot-tall Triumphal Arch at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island, also known as the Lady Bird Johnson Park-a historic site at the west end of the National Mall's ceremonial axis.

The proposed monument would surpass Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, the world’s largest triumphal arch, which stands 164 feet high. Dubbed the "Arc de Trump," critics argue that building the new monument on this traffic circle, which is managed by the National Park Service (NPS), requires explicit congressional authorization under federal law.

Administration officials, however, have leaned on a 101-year-old, never-built element of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission's design vision for Columbia Island-a pair of monumental columns-to argue that the new arch is simply fulfilling a long-approved idea.

Memorial Circle is the traffic circle at the Virginia end of Arlington Memorial Bridge, sitting between the bridge and the ceremonial approach to Arlington National Cemetery, directly across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial. The NPS describes the Memorial Bridge and Avenue corridor as a carefully composed monumental approach intended to symbolically link the Lincoln Memorial with Arlington House and the cemetery, representing post-Civil War national unity.

That symbolism is central to the preservation argument now being raised. Critics say the new arch would interrupt an intentionally open, axial vista that was designed to remain visually legible from one side of the river to the other.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA)-currently composed of Trump appointees-previously approved the arch's design concept and is reviewing a revised proposal for the arch on Thursday.

Newsweek has contacted the White House, Department of the Interior (DOI), Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), and Department of Justice (DOJ) for comment via email.

Original Columbia Island Column Design

The Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission's 1924 report, which was shared with Congress and formally ratified in 1925, laid out a broader monumental composition for the bridge and its approaches.

Within that plan, Columbia Island was envisioned as a monumental setting for a pair of tall columns that would frame views toward the Lincoln Memorial.

"The columns are feet high or practically of the same height as the Colonne de Juillet in Paris," the report noted.

The plans in the report state there were to be two 166-foot-tall columns on the island. Images submitted with the plans show how the bridge and Columbia Island would look, alongside a more detailed elevation outline showing the column and statue separately.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has invoked that unrealized column idea as evidence that Congress had already endorsed a monumental structure concept for the site.

The 1924 plan aimed to keep the bridge itself low and ceremonial, using vertical markers (pylons, and later proposed columns) as punctuation at the ends and on Columbia Island-rather than placing a dominant mass directly in the middle of the traffic circle.

How Proposed Triumphal Arch Compares

The administration's Triumphal Arch proposal is not a pair of columns. It is a single, highly sculptural arch modeled on Paris' Arc de Triomphe and designed to rise to 250 feet-one foot per year of American independence-making it far taller than classic European counterparts and more than twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial.

Some of the main features of the proposed arch include:

• A 250-foot overall height and placement at Memorial Circle
• A crown of eagles and a winged "Lady Liberty" figure with gold elements
• Gold-lettered inscriptions reading "One Nation Under God" and "Liberty and Justice for All"
• An observation deck offering 360-degree views

Renderings filed with the CFA show the main arch mass as 166 feet to the roofline-the exact same height as the original column design-with other elements bringing the total to 250 feet. The filing also described the archway's opening dimensions and decorative features.

The contrast with the earlier column concept is stark-the earlier plan's iconic verticals were two slender columns, with statues on top, intended to "frame" the Lincoln Memorial, while the proposed arch is a single monumental mass placed in the center of Memorial Circle with a large sculptural program and an occupiable deck.

In October 2025, Trump displayed models of the arch at a White House donor dinner and, when asked by a reporter who the arch was for, he replied: "Me."

Trump previously said that Washington was “the only city in the world that’s of great importance that doesn’t have a triumphal arch.”

“It is something that is so special,” he said. “It will be like the one in Paris but to be honest with you it blows it away.”

He was referring to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which was constructed in the 19th century to honor those who died in the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 2:05 PM.