Arlington National Cemetery: Historical Expansion

Origins of Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery (ANC), the nation’s premier national cemetery, has undergone multiple phases of expansion during its 159-year history. All of these expansions have honored our core mission: representing the American people for past, present and future generations by laying to rest those few who have served our nation with dignity and honor, while immersing guests in the cemetery’s living history. Throughout its history, Arlington National Cemetery has expanded from 200 to 639 acres, with over 400,000 burials of service members, veterans and their eligible dependents.

ANC originated during the Civil War. The property was originally owned by George Washington Parke Custis, President George Washington’s step-grandson, to be a living memorial to the United States’ first president and a working plantation. Custis’ plantation, which encompassed 1,100 acres, was actively worked by enslaved laborers. Parts of the property were used for agriculture and for animal husbandry. Upon his death, Custis left the estate to his daughter, Mary Custis Lee, who married U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Robert E. Lee (later a Confederate general) in 1831.

After Virginia seceded from the United States and the Lees left the property (due to Robert E. Lee’s decision to join the Confederacy), the U.S. Army occupied Arlington Plantation on May 24, 1861—due to its strategic high ground overlooking the nation’s capital.  Brig. Gen. Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army, ordered the Arlington property to be used as a cemetery, as space at nearby military cemeteries was running out. On May 13, 1864, the first military burial was conducted for Pvt. William Christman. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton established Arlington as a national cemetery on June 15, 1864, ordering that 200 acres of the original, 1,100 acre Custis Plantation be utilized for military burials.

At that time, national cemeteries ensured proper care for fallen service members whose families could not afford the cost of transporting their loved ones’ remains home. No one had anticipated that national cemeteries would continue to grow, in numbers and in prestige, after the war.

Additionally, in June 1863, the U.S. government established a large Freedman’s Village (on the southern end of today’s cemetery) to provide formerly enslaved people with housing, social services and skills training.

First Expansions

ANC’s cultural status began to change in 1868, when U.S. Army Gen. John Logan declared May 30 a national day of remembrance—Decoration Day—to honor U.S. Civil War dead. Decoration Day, the first annual, official observance of military losses, was later renamed as Memorial Day. ANC continues to host the annual, official Memorial Day commemorative ceremony.  

Veterans began to understand the honor associated with a dignified burial at Arlington and other national cemeteries. As a result, demand for interment grew at Arlington throughout the 1870s and 1880s.

Following the establishment of Decoration Day, the ever-increasing demand for burial at Arlington prompted the cemetery to expand for the first time in 1893. A second expansion in 1897 brought ANC close to its modern southern boundary.

However, in order for ANC to expand, Freedman’s Village had to be permanently closed. The village housed as many as 3,000 residents; in addition, plots of land around the remnants of the Custis Planation were apportioned to African American families for them to grow crops. The Army closed the village in December 1887 to pave the way for the cemetery’s expansion. The last residents relocated from the property in 1890, at which point the Army began deconstructing all of the remaining buildings. Congress appropriated $75,000 to compensate the relocated villagers, former residents and their descendants.

Although the new expansion was planned for Civil War veterans, the Spanish-American War of 1898 shaped the future of ANC. When a U.S. Navy battleship, the USS Maine, exploded while in port in Cuba on February 15, 1898, the United States declared war on Spain and fought a quick and decisive conflict. For the first time, the United States had waged a war entirely outside of its borders, and the brief but significant conflict transformed the nation into a global power.

At the conclusion of the war, the U.S. government repatriated fallen service members for reburial in the United States, at no cost to their families. Those repatriations began in December 1899, with the burial of 230 service members who died in the Maine’s explosion . With their burials, ANC officially grew beyond its original 200 acres. The burial of the Maine crew established Arlington as a cemetery for all service members of subsequent conflicts, not just Civil War veterans.

Between 1900 and 1963, service members from the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and Korea—as well as veterans of the peacetime military—were buried at ANC. Established sections facilitated these interments, and new sections were added overtime. In total, however, these burials were conducted within the footprint of ANC as it existed after the 1897 expansion.

Recent Expansion

The burial of President John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery—prompted by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy— profoundly impacted ANC. Following Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, his state funeral at ANC took place November 25, 1963. For the first time in history, the nation watched a state funeral on live television. The honor and pageantry inspired a rapid, significant increase in requests for burials. ANC went from about 1,200 burials in 1962 to requests for over 10,000 burials by 1968. In addition, the decades of volunteers and draftees who fought in World War I, World War II, Korea and the start of the war in Vietnam were also eligible for burial. This contributed to the massive increase in demand for burial space at the cemetery. That demand has never ceased.

It became clear that the cemetery would reach capacity by 1980 if steps were not taken. Thus, ANC implemented several measures to preserve these hallowed grounds for future generations. Eligibility requirements changed, per Congressional approval, and ANC added columbarium courts that provide above-ground niches for cremated remains. The creation of the inurnment courts helped preserve space within the cemetery. Their design also reflected societal shifts in the popularity of cremation as an option for Americans. The columbarium courts offer intentionally designed, beautiful spaces for inurnment.

In 1972, ANC expanded again, this time to the east, resulting in 624 acres. The property to the east side of Eisenhower Drive, originally called the Georgetown Alexandria Road, housed an experimental farm run by the Department of Agriculture from the late 1890s until 1940, when it was moved to its current location in Beltsville, Maryland. The site was then used for temporary housing during the construction of the Pentagon, as well as for female civil servants and service members during World War II. The buildings were then incorporated into the Fort Myer Cantonment, commonly referred to as South Post Fort Myer. Beginning in 1967, the buildings were demolished, and the site was turned into land suitable for burial sections.

Further expansion began in 1998. The 1998 ANC Master Plan first identified the former Navy Annex site (now known as the Southern Expansion site; see below) as suitable interment space, due to its location and existing Department of Defense (DoD) ownership. This area contains underutilized land which can be made contiguous with the cemetery by realigning roadways. This area was transferred to ANC in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2000.

Capacity Challenges and Southern Expansion

In order to ensure continued space for eligible veterans and their dependents, Arlington completed, in September 2018, an expansion project on the northwest side of the cemetery: “The Millennium Site.” This expansion, based on transferring property from Joint Base Myer/Henderson Hall and the National Park Service, added 27 acres of space and over 27,000 burial opportunities.

However, even with these additional burial sections, Arlington National Cemetery is projected to run out of space for new burials by 2041 or, with Southern Expansion, by 2060.

In July 2017, ANC initiated a survey inviting the public and stakeholders to join a national dialogue on the issue, providing a forum to share ideas, opinions and concerns, which yielded more than 250,000 responses, who included veterans and service members from all branches of service, as well as military families and the general public.

With this input, Congress directed, in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), that Arlington National Cemetery propose revised eligibility criteria in order to keep ANC an active cemetery for ground burial “well into the future,” defined as the next 150 years.

As of 2022, ANC has fewer than 75,000 burial opportunities, with over 23 million active-duty service members, retirees and veterans living today. Without changes to eligibility, ANC will run out of space for new burials by 2041, or by the mid-2060s with the eventual completion of the Southern Expansion project.

ANC’s Southern Expansion project, which began in September 2021, will add an approximately 50 acres and more than 80,000 interment spaces. Additionally, the project will significantly enhance the experience of visitors to ANC, while preserving the iconic look and feel of this national shrine. Benefits to visitors include a new entrance on Columbia Pike; a limited, controlled public parking garage; and seamless access to the Air Force Memorial. Construction is expected to be complete in the winter of 2027.

Conclusion

Currently, ANC stands at a crossroads in its history. In order to significantly extend ANC’s capacity, expansion of the cemetery’s geographic footprint is required.

Over 150 years after its founding, Arlington remains an active cemetery. Each weekday, up to 30 service members and their eligible dependents are laid to rest here, with up to eight additional services on Saturdays. In addition, ANC receives over three million visitors per year, who come to explore the cemetery’s rich history—which represents the diverse history of the American people.

As Arlington developed into a premier national military cemetery, our mission has always been to ensure that future generations of veterans can lay in honored rest on these sacred grounds. Yet Arlington is part of a national military cemetery system, comprising the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 155 national cemeteries and 138 state, territorial and tribal cemeteries. For more information about those options, click here: https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Funerals/Cemetery-Locator.

To learn more about Arlington National Cemetery and its history, explore our Education Program at https://education.arlingtoncemetery.mil/.