WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a promenade will be built onto the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the latest in a series of construction projects he has launched in the U.S. capital.
“They want to call it the Trump Promenade, but I don’t know if I want to do that, but it’s going to be beautiful,” Trump told reporters at the White House, without elaborating on who was asking to name it after him.
The Lincoln Memorial, one of Washington’s most iconic landmarks, is a monument to the president who led the United States through its Civil War. It sits at the western end of the National Mall, overlooking the Reflecting Pool, which Trump has also refurbished.
Trump’s latest announcement is part of a broader push by the former property developer to reshape Washington’s monumental core. He also intends to erect a 250-foot (76-meter) arch and is building a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House.
Many of his projects have faced court battles, including his bid to renovate the performing arts center named for President John F. Kennedy, which a governing board of Trump appointees renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center. A judge last week ordered the name changed back to the Kennedy Center.
Trump suggested the promenade would be built over two roads that run alongside the memorial to allow pedestrians to cross over the roads and get to the Potomac River and other tourist sites.
“It’s a beautiful project, and it’s going to take the Lincoln Memorial right down to the Potomac, which it was always scheduled to do,” he said.
The White House had no additional information about the project.
Trump’s announcement came on the same day that water began flowing into the renovated Reflecting Pool on the Washington Mall. The pool has been of particular interest to Trump, who had a new surface installed in a color he calls “American flag blue.”
In a related development, a U.S. planning commission on Thursday advanced Trump’s plan for a 250-foot Triumphal Arch that would be built across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.
“When completed, it will be, without question, the Greatest Arch of them all!” Trump said in a post welcoming the development.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson in Washington and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; Writing by Bhargav Acharya and Steve Holland; Editing by David Ljunggren, Ross Colvin and Matthew Lewis)
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