In yesterday’s post I discussed the need for you to submit comments on the proposed Triumphal Arch across from the Lincoln Memorial. Several people asked me if I submitted a comment. I did, and it appears below. Those of you who want to object to the Arch, its design, or its siting should follow this link to the form for submittal of those objections to the National Park Service. The comment period closes at 11:59PM on June 15, 2026.
Generally, I try to introduce myself, not by giving a full biography, but by stressing my own experiences and interests with the issue at hand. Next I give the basic facts. Then, finally, I apply analysis to the changes and express my concerns about them. You can also offer some compromises in your comment. Try to stay away from attacks. The review panel all work for the president and are likely to dismiss you of you show hostility towards their boss.
Here is what I wrote today in about an hour:
“I am a college professor at Hofstra University on Long Island. For more than fifteen years I have been writing popularly about the Civil War and Reconstruction for Newsday, Emerging Civil War, The Immigrants’ Civil War, and the Reconstruction Era Blog. I have been interested in these subjects for more than sixty years and I take the public to view sites associated with the Civil War. The area from the Lincoln Memorial to the Robert E. Lee House is among the sacred sites in America, made even more sacred because it includes Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The proposed Triumphal Arch will compromise these sites. Connecting them all is the Arlington Memorial Bridge. The bridge was constructed in 1932 in a Neoclassical style to provide access to the largest military cemetery in the United States and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on its ground. It also serves as a way for people coming north from Virginia to have Washington framed by the Lincoln Memorial as they came across the bridge. It was designed by the prestigious architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White and it has two statues on the District of Columbia side. It is nearly a half-mile wide at 2,163 feet.
From 1900 until 1922, several plans were put forward to build the bridge, but it was only when Warren G. Harding signed on to the plan was it actually commenced. Harding and the commission set up to build the bridge agreed that the bridge should focus on a line of sight from the Lincoln Memorial to the Robert E. Lee House, or Custis-Lee House as it was known at the time.
While the bridge is magnificent, it is not tall. The architects did not want to obscure the sight of the Lincoln Memorial and the Robert E. Lee House.
The proposed new Arch will be 250 feet in height. The Lincoln Memorial is “only” 99 feet high. The Arch will tower over the memorial to Lincoln. More than 8 million tourists visited the memorial to the Civil War president last year both because of its history and because it is literally monumental at the west end of the National Mall. There they learn about the Civil War, Lincoln’s Presidency, and the Emancipation Proclamation. In the future, the Lincoln Memorial will be an anteroom to the Triumphal Arch.
The siting of the bridge was also supposed to show that the country could be reunited after a bloody Civil War. On the north side is the assassinated victor in the war who proclaimed freedom. On the south side is the home of the greatest Confederate leader during the war. They were separated by conflict, but at the start of the war, they lived within easy sight of each other. If you look at the rendering below, Lee’s house is miniscule inside of the Arch. During its meetings, Harding’s commission did recognize that many Americans saw Lee as a heroic and Christian gentleman and they saw his cause as “Lost” but he was being a person of dignity. That tribute to Lee is lost inside the Arch.
Since it is the Triumphal Arch, instead of reconciliation, the Administration proposes that one section of the country has triumphed. Which One?
And, while Lee’s Home and the Lincoln Memorial are considered sacred ground, the most important part is Arlington National Cemetery. The cemetery was originally on Lee’s estate. It became a cemetery for Union soldiers during the war so that Lee could never move back. Lee was very upset at the taking of his land. His heirs were later paid for the value of it. Over the years in the many wars after the Civil War, it has become a symbol of reconciliation as people from all different parts of our country are buried together on the same land without distinction. And, of course, one of the most iconic sites is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where we don’t know where they came from, whether U.S.-born or an immigrant, only that they died for their country.”
-Patrick Young
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