A new analysis by The Washington Post has found that President Donald Trump's proposed "triumphal arch" in Washington, D.C., would cast shadows over Arlington National Cemetery — one of the nation's most revered landmarks — for most of the year. The cemetery, administered by the U.S. Army, is the resting place of more than 400,000 service members, veterans and their families.

The arch is one of several projects Trump has pressed forward with, alongside his plans for a White House ballroom and his drive to put his name on buildings. Inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and similar monuments, the structure is planned for the site of Memorial Circle, across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial and near the entrance to Arlington Cemetery. Trump has proposed a height of 250 feet — taller than the Arc de Triomphe, which rises about 164 feet, and more than twice the height of the nearby Lincoln Memorial, which stands roughly 99 feet tall. Critics warn that proposed height would dwarf the rest of the city's structures and disrupt some of its iconic views.

On Tuesday morning, The Washington Post released an extensive analysis of the arch's potential impact on the nearby cemetery, using a "to-scale digital 3D model." The report concluded that the structure would cast a new shadow over the area most days of the year and affect other landmarks across the city as well.

"Over the course of a year, the shadow of the triumphal arch would touch burial sites in Arlington National Cemetery on 284 days," the outlet reported. According to the model, the shadow would briefly cover John F. Kennedy's eternal flame — which has burned at the president's gravesite since his 1963 funeral — on 18 days, shade the former president's memorial on 50 days, and darken the Military Women's Memorial, which honors women who have served in the U.S. armed forces, on 109 days.

Those tallies reflect basic solar geometry: the sun sits lower in the sky during the winter months, when shadows cast by tall structures stretch to their longest of the year. The analysis also found that the shadow would move across the graves of veterans and their next of kin from the Vietnam War, the Korean War, World War II, World War I, the Spanish-American War and the Civil War, and would dim the headstones of formerly enslaved people. In total, The Post determined that the shadow would pass over more than 75,000 graves. On most days, the shadow would recede from the grounds by the time the cemetery opens at 8 a.m., but it would linger past that hour on 26 days, according to the model.

Washington's monumental core owes its layout to Pierre L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the federal capital, later built upon by the McMillan Commission's 1901–1902 plan, both of which treated the open space and sightlines between landmarks as central to the city's design. "The original designers understood that the open space between significant structures was as important as the landmarks themselves," Neil Flanagan, an architect and historian who is writing a book about Washington's design, told The Post.

Paul Eaton, a retired U.S. Army major general whose parents are buried in the cemetery, told the outlet that the idea of the arch casting shadows on the graves of veterans would be "a sacrilege."

The findings contradict the Interior Department's own claim that the arch would produce only a small amount of shadow at the cemetery for less than two weeks each year. When the agency provided a copy of the report containing those claims, The Post found that it did "not explain the methodologies used."

Pressed for comment on the findings, the White House appeared to largely sidestep the question. A spokesman told The Post only that the arch would "enhance the visitor experience" at Arlington and would become "one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington D.C., but throughout the world." As of the analysis's publication, the gap between the Post's model — 284 days — and the department's estimate of fewer than 14 days remained unreconciled.