Arlington National Cemetery: The most hallowed ground in the United States

Each year, more than three million people visit Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, to honor the more than 400,000 service members, veterans and their families laid to rest in these hallowed grounds and learn about the history of our nation.

Across 624 acres, the cemetery conducts about 30 funeral services each weekday and approximately 10 on Saturdays, totaling more than 7,000 burials per year. To keep the cemetery open and active well into the future, expansion projects have been a priority.

The Millennium project, the first expansion of the cemetery in more than 40 years, developed over 27 acres to accommodate an additional 56,000 interments located either above or below ground. Jacobs provided design services for the expansion in a joint venture with Louis Berger (formerly Amman & Whitney). 

The Millennium Project, the first expansion of the cemetery in over 40 years, developed 27 acres on the property’s north side. The design accommodated an additional 56,000 interments through a combination of in-ground casket burials, cremation burials, and cremation interments in multiple columbarium courtyards across the landscaped site.

The Millennium Project design – led by Jacobs and Louis Berger – was a very low profile in keeping with the adjoining tract of simple headstones and carefully considered the boundary wall, hills, and trees that were affected by the expansion. The team studied adjoining historic districts, including Joint Base Fort Myer - Henderson Hall, Arlington House, and Arlington National Cemetery to establish the Millennium Project as a distinct, complementary component of the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District, soon to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The project design proposed mitigations, including documenting the boundary wall, reusing boundary wall stone in new walls, preserving trees, and surveying invasive species and habitats. The design affected less than 2.63 acres of trees. A stream on the site was also reconnected to its floodplain.

The Millennium project at Arlington National Cemetery received the 2019  Diamond Award in the Special Projects category from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of New York, which honors member firms for design achievements of superior skill and ingenuity and that are judged on a rigorous set of criteria that includes complexity, innovation, and value to society. The project also won a 2019 Award of Merit from the AIA (American Institute of Architects) Northern Virginia Chapter and was named the 2019 Best Landscape Hardscape Urban Development project and a Project of the Year finalist by the Engineering News-Record MidAtlantic Chapter. Arlington County also recognized the project with one of its 2019 Design Excellence Awards.