Press Releases

Rep. Beyer, who represents a Northern Virginia district in the U.S. House that includes Arlington National Cemetery, today urged Trump Administration officials to provide greater transparency to the public about potential traffic impacts of President Trump’s proposed “triumphal arch.” Trump appointees on the Commission of Fine Arts recently voted to approve designs for the proposed 250-foot structure, which the President is seeking to build on a traffic circle between Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington Memorial Bridge.

Beyer asked Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Acting Director of the National Park Service Jessica Bowron to share “copies of traffic studies and any other documentation available regarding plans that the Department of the Interior and National Park Service have undertaken with respect to transportation impacts from President Trump’s arch proposal.”

He wrote:

“On May 21, the Commission of Fine Arts voted to approve designs for a 250-foot arch to be built near Arlington National Cemetery, in the circle on Lady Bird Johnson Park. I write to express my grave concerns about the impacts on traffic that this project will have on my Northern Virginia constituents, and to request copies of your plans and studies for coping with the transportation disruption generated by the proposed construction.

“With the size of the project and the site’s location between Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery, the proposed construction would have significant traffic impacts on my Northern Virginia constituents.

…

“I write, therefore, to request copies of traffic studies and any other documentation available regarding plans that the Department of the Interior and National Park Service have undertaken with respect to transportation impacts from President Trump’s arch proposal. If no such studies or documentation exist, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to immediately address potential traffic impacts arising from this project.

“I request that you respond with the information requested and any relevant details before any further work on this project proceeds. Failure to produce plans for traffic impacts from this arch could, I fear, be widely interpreted as a sign of apathy or disorganization on the part of the Administration regarding the outsized local impacts of its decision-making. The public deserves transparency in this matter from their government.”

Text of Beyer’s letter follows below, and a signed copy is available here.

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Dear Secretary Burgum and Acting Director Bowron:

On May 21, the Commission of Fine Arts voted to approve designs for a 250-foot arch to be built near Arlington National Cemetery, in the circle on Lady Bird Johnson Park. I write to express my grave concerns about the impacts on traffic that this project will have on my Northern Virginia constituents, and to request copies of your plans and studies for coping with the transportation disruption generated by the proposed construction.

With the size of the project and the site’s location between Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery, the proposed construction would have significant traffic impacts on my Northern Virginia constituents. Major thoroughfares impacted include the George Washington Memorial Parkway, Washington Boulevard, Arlington Boulevard, as well as traffic to Arlington National Cemetery along Memorial Avenue and traffic on Arlington Memorial Bridge. Nearly 70,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day, most of which are from Virginia, and many more pass through the environs on their way through Northern Virginia.[1] These areas also have major pedestrian and bike pathways, including Mount Vernon Trail, one of the most heavily used multi-use trails in the country, in addition to vehicular traffic.[2]

Previous construction projects in this area, including the Arlington Memorial Bridge Rehabilitation from 2018-2020, caused significant traffic disruptions. One key difference between that renovation work and the proposed arch is that the former was undertaken by your agencies to protect the public from potentially fatal accidents or deterioration of this heavily used bridge, whereas the proposed arch is being built, according to President Trump, for himself personally.[3] My constituents and the residents and visitors who would be impacted by this project deserve consideration in this matter, and they deserve answers about how the actions of your departments would affect their lives.

I write, therefore, to request copies of traffic studies and any other documentation available regarding plans that the Department of the Interior and National Park Service have undertaken with respect to transportation impacts from President Trump’s arch proposal. If no such studies or documentation exist, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to immediately address potential traffic impacts arising from this project.

I request that you respond with the information requested and any relevant details before any further work on this project proceeds. Failure to produce plans for traffic impacts from this arch could, I fear, be widely interpreted as a sign of apathy or disorganization on the part of the Administration regarding the outsized local impacts of its decision-making. The public deserves transparency in this matter from their government.

Sincerely,