Trump says he wants proposed arch to be world's "biggest"

Washington — President Trump says he wants the new triumphal arch he's commissioning as a gate to Washington, D.C., to be the "biggest one of all" in the world, even though the proposed site is situated along a flight path for nearby Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. The design continues to be refined, and the president has said it will be larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which stands at 164 feet tall, according to a White House official. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the president wants to build a 250-foot arch, aligning with the 250th anniversary of the country, which would dwarf even the tallest triumphal arch in the world, the 220-foot-tall Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City. For comparison, the Lincoln Memorial, which sits opposite the Memorial Bridge of the would-be arch site, is 99 feet tall. The White House plans to seek approval to build the Independence Arch from the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, the White House official said. "I'd like it to be the biggest one of all," Trump told reporters Sunday night on Air Force One. "We're the biggest, most powerful nation." Planes can't cross over the National Mall in Washington due to flight restrictions, and the same is true of the Pentagon, so current flight paths leave them to follow the Potomac River, at relatively low heights. …