WASHINGTON—Designs were unveiled on Friday for a 250-foot arch in Washington sought by President Donald Trump that, if approved, would reshape the capital's monument-filled skyline.
Trump administration officials formally submitted detailed renderings of the proposed "Triumphal Arch" ahead of a meeting next week to advance the project.
The designs call for an ivory-colored arch modeled on the Roman Arch of Titus from classical antiquity and resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
It comes complete with an array of golden fixtures, most notably a towering 60-foot statue on top that resembles the Statue of Liberty with angel wings. She is flanked by two 24-foot eagle statues.
Two phrases from the national Pledge of Allegiance—"ONE NATION UNDER GOD" and "LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL"—would be inscribed on each side of arch. Other design elements include four golden lion statues.
The arch—meant to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States this year—would be built at a site currently occupied by an empty traffic circle. It is located between the Lincoln Memorial and the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, the military cemetery where around 430,000 individuals have been buried since the Revolutionary War.
Trump told reporters in January that he wants the arch to be "the biggest one of all." At 250 feet, the proposed monument would tower over the approximately 100-foot-tall Lincoln Memorial, would be significantly taller than the Arc de Triomphe, and would be about half the height of the 555-foot-tall, obelisk-shaped Washington Monument in the middle of the National Mall.
It is the tallest new structure proposed by the administration of Trump, a real estate developer, and would be the largest federal monument built in Washington since President Franklin D. Roosevelt oversaw construction of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in 1943.
In other designs also publicized on Friday, the Trump administration is proposing painting white an ornate, gray building next to the White House called the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where many administration officials work, as well as reimagining Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the U.S. Capitol building with new road and walk ways, different trees, and tall American flags.