ARLINGTON
NATIONAL
CEMETERY

Prepared for the Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Support Services, under the direction of the Norfolk District, Corps of Engineers, Norfolk, Virginia, by Keyes, Lethbridge & Condon, Architects,

and Sasaki, Dawson and De May, Landscape Architects.

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For assistance in developing the comprehensive plan, acknowledgement is gratefully made to Col. James McFarland, Lt. Col. W. W. Floyd, and Mr. Bobbie Beller, all of the Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Support Services.

Assistance in carrying out the contractual responsibilities of this study has also been provided by Mr. William Tamm, Assistant Chief, Engineering Division, and by Mr. William O. Burford, Chief, Civil Engineering Section, of the U.S. Army Engineer District, Norfolk.

For photographs and other material we thank the Department of the Interior, the Department of the Army, the Fine Arts Commission, the National Archives, and the Office of John Carl Warnecke.

CONTENTS

Introduction page 7

Arlington, Past and Present page 11

The Cemetery Landscape page 19

Resolving the Conflicts of Use page 27

Building for the Future page 35

In Conclusion page 47

Maps and Illustrations

Location Map, page 6

Aerial View of Cemetery, page 10

Comprehensive Plan of Cemetery, page 18

Landscape Plan for New Areas, page 22

Typical Road Sections, page 26

Circulation Plan of Cemetery, page 30

Plan of Amphitheater Area, page 31

Plan of Marine Memorial Area, page 33

Aerial View of Memorial Gate, page 34

Plans of Parking and Visitors' Center, page 36

Plan of Interim Parking and Visitors' Center, page 37

Plans of Administration Building, page 38

Plan, Section and Elevation of Service Buildings, page 40

View of Memorial Chapel, page 42

Plan and Section of Memorial Chapel and Lagoon, page 44

INTRODUCTION

The development of Arlington National Cemetery has been
a history of continual growth and change. Designated a
national cemetery in June 1864, the original 202 acres had
been more than doubled by 1897; it will ultimately be ex-
panded to an area of 622 acres with the addition of the
grounds now occupied by the South Post of Fort Myer.
Arlington has come to symbolize the entire national ceme-
tery system as a special place of honor, dedicated to the
memory of American military and public servants.
Arlington's felicitous location on the western slope of the
Potomac highlands allows it to be seen from the nation's
capital as a continuing reminder of the service and sacrifice
of those who have served their country well. From the
Cemetery grounds, in turn, there is an extensive view of the
city. With the completion of Arlington Memorial Bridge
and its processional approaches, the Cemetery became
physically and symbolically tied to the axis of the Mall and
into the fabric of ceremonial Washington. Arlington had
long been one of the national shrines most favored by visit-
ors to Washington from all parts of the country. The con-
struction of Memorial Drive made Arlington more easily
accessible to tourists arriving by car and bus, and a great
increase in the number of visitors has been stimulated by
the interments of famous people, the construction of me-
morials to the dead of all wars, and the pageantry of mili-
tary guard and burial ceremonies.

As a reflection of changing social customs and aesthetic
tastes the philosophy of cemetery administration and de-
sign also changed over the years. Distinctions of rank and
race have been erased; in the latter part of the nineteenth
century the "Park Cemetery" ideal replaced assertive and
crowded monument displays with park landscapes of ex-
tensive lawns and planting. The tradition of the military
cemetery, with standard headstones and uniform rows, a
broad pattern retaining the dominant form of the land, also
influenced the development of Arlington's scenic charac-
ter. The original open fields of headstones have been cano-
pied by trees and are now part of a woodland park. Arling-
ton is unique in successfully blending these concepts.

In the last decade it became apparent that the ever-increas-
ing number of burials was outstripping the land available,
and reduction in plot size, the requirement that all mem-
bers of a family be buried in the same plot, and ultimately,