Interior Secretary Burgum: Excavation to Begin Within Two Weeks on Trump's 250-Foot Triumphal Arch

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Thursday, September 3, 2026, that site excavation will begin within two weeks on President Trump's planned 250-foot granite 'Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck,' to be built on Columbia Island near Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac from the Lincoln Memorial. The arch, topped by three golden statues and an observation deck, is expected to take two to three years to build under an intense 20-hour-a-day schedule, and still awaits final sign-off from the National Capital Planning Commission along with federally mandated aviation-safety and historic-preservation reviews. Veterans' groups and preservationists have filed an emergency lawsuit seeking to halt groundbreaking, arguing the project is moving forward without required approvals.