The Trump administration unveiled design plans for a 250-foot triumphal arch to be built at one end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge along the Potomac River.
The drawings are now before the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a federal panel that will take up the design at its meeting next week.
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts is one of two federal panels, along with the planning commission, that are tasked with overseeing Washington, DC–area building projects.
President Donald Trump previously said that the arch would commemorate next year's 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
In the renderings, the arch features two eagles and a gold-toned winged angel on top, loosely modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The only inscriptions shown are “One Nation Under God” on one side and “Liberty and Justice for All” on the other.
The drawings were prepared by Harrison Design, an architectural firm located in Washington, DC.
Trump first unveiled models of the proposed arch during a White House ballroom fundraising event in October.
At the time, he showed donors three different sizes of a 3D model of a giant arch featuring Lady Liberty, in gold, at the top. He also revealed the proposed location for the arch was across from the Lincoln Memorial.
"That circle, that's Arlington Memorial Bridge,” Trump said. "And at the end of it, you have a circle that was built 150 years ago. They put two columns on one side. Two columns on the other, but you have in the middle, just a circle, and everyone that passes it said something was supposed to be built there ... but a thing called the Civil War interfered. That's a good reason."
Ballroom update
Meanwhile, Trump received a bit of positive news last week about his $400 million White House ballroom construction project, which is at a standstill after a federal judge had granted the National Trust for Historic Preservation's request for a preliminary injunction, temporarily stopping the ballroom construction.
The National Planning Commission voted to approve Trump's project despite a slew of negative comments received from the public.
Despite the federal panel voting to approve the plans, construction on the ballroom cannot continue until Trump gets the OK from Congress.
Congress is currently on a two-week spring recess. It'll return to session on April 14.
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Julie Taylor is a reporter for Realtor.com. She was most recently a writer and co-executive producer on “The Talk” where she won two Daytime Emmy Awards. A member of the Writers Guild of America, Julie has written for Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Redbook magazines and is the author of six books. Julie earned a B.A. in magazine journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. After two decades in New York City and Los Angeles, she recently relocated to the Midwest.
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