Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Thursday that excavation work on President Donald Trump’s 250-foot-tall “Great Triumphal Arch” will begin within the next two weeks at Memorial Circle near Arlington National Cemetery.
“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, at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery,” Burgum said in a statement.
The arch — a white structure topped with a golden Lady Liberty statue — represents one of the most ambitious presidential monument projects in modern American history.
“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’s announcement comes after a series of federal approvals cleared the way for construction. The Commission of Fine Arts approved the project in April, the National Capital Planning Commission gave backing in July, and the National Park Service supported the arch in late August — despite determining the structure would have “adverse” impacts on sightlines of the Lincoln Memorial and other nearby monuments.
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, at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island between the Lincoln… pic.twitter.com/8aff90jKNd
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) September 3, 2026
Trump first unveiled plans for the arch — then called the “Independence Arch” — in October 2025 at a White House donor dinner. The over-200-foot structure will sit on Columbia Island, National Park Service territory across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.
The project faces a legal challenge from three Vietnam War veterans who sued the administration in late February, arguing Trump needs congressional approval to construct the arch. The case is pending in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Department of Justice lawyers filed a notice Thursday alerting the court to the Supreme Court’s recent decision allowing the White House to continue construction on the East Wing Ballroom — a ruling DOJ argues supports the arch project.
DOJ lawyers argued that just as the National Trust for Historic Preservation “could not establish standing based on a ‘desire to view’ the White House,” the plaintiffs in the arch case “cannot establish standing based on desires to view Arlington House or the Lincoln Memorial.”
“Plaintiffs’ distaste for the perceived symbolism of the proposed arch does not establish a concrete and particularized injury,” DOJ lawyers argued in the Thursday filing.
The veterans’ lawyers countered Wednesday that their clients “acted properly in bringing suit promptly following Defendants’ announcement of their plan to build an unauthorized monument,” distinguishing their case from the ballroom lawsuit, which was filed after construction began.
The plaintiff’s lawyers argue that “the entry of an injunction that stops Defendants’ unlawful project before they break ground is the appropriate form of relief.”
Despite the ongoing legal fight, Burgum’s announcement signals the Trump administration is moving forward with the excavation work — setting the stage for one of the capital’s most controversial and ambitious construction projects in decades.
