The District of Columbia and Virginia filed a federal lawsuit on Oct. 31 to stop President Donald Trump's planned building of a huge "Triumphal Arch" that would tower over other capital landmarks, calling the project "flagrantly unlawful."
The arch is planned for a whopping 250 feet in height at Memorial Circle, where Arlington Memorial Bridge and George Washington Memorial Parkway intersect in front of the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. The Trump administration has said the arch and its height, first announced a year ago, will commemorate the country's 250th anniversary.
The concrete structure is planned to be clad in granite, with two gilded eagles and a central winged figure. The arch is one of the projects spearheaded by Trump to leave
his mark on Washington's landscape, including the fraught relining of the Reflecting Pool and a new ballroom and granite helipad for the White House complex.
Virginia's and D.C.'s attorneys general argue in the suit that the Trump administration is bypassing legally required authorization from Congress to build a monument, and that the arch would nearly double the legally permissible height, 130 feet, of buildings in the nation's capital. They said in the suit that the administration is attempting to "outrun judicial review" by rushing groundbreaking for the arch so they can later argue that they can't stop once they have started.
"The Court should not allow this cynical gambit to succeed," attorneys general for Washington, D.C., and Virginia, Brian Schwalb and Jay Jones, wrote in the suit, obtained by USA TODAY. "As soon as Defendants break ground on this project, they will inflict irreparable harm on both the District and Virginia."
USA TODAY has reached out to the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and the White House for comment on the suit.
Construction for the arch could begin as soon as Nov. 5, lawyers for the Trump administration have previously said in a court filing in a separate lawsuit.
Construction could take two to three years of nearly around-the-clock work. The suit says that the construction will snarl traffic at a major artery between D.C. and Virginia, impede emergency responders and have negative impacts to the environment, particularly through stormwater runoff into the Potomac River, which the states say they will have to address with their own financial resources.
"The Arch will change the District’s historic character," the lawsuit reads.
The Trump administration has acknowledged that the Triumphal Arch will have a negative impact on numerous other capital monuments and historical sites, primarily that it would alter or obstruct their views. The National Park Service said in a report in August that the arch would "diminish the integrity" of key characteristics of other sites. Still, it backed the plans and rejected proposals for a smaller arch: The 250-foot arch would represent the country's 250th anniversary, while "honoring America's founding principles," it said.
The National Capital Planning Commission is expected to meet Nov. 5 and decide on approving the final site and building plans for the arch. The Department of Interior will also issue a final decision authorizing the construction, the suit says.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DC, Virginia file lawsuit to stop Trump's 250-foot Triumphal Arch
