An excavator uproots trees. Rakes scrape the ground. A grinder turns limbs into mulch. Deer scramble for cover. For the first time in a decade, expansion is coming to the pre-eminent military burial ground in the United States. It means a major upheaval. As a fawn dashes away, worker Scott Mills says, "I feel bad for them. And I hate tearing trees down. But this is for a good cause."Arlington National Cemetery is adding 26,000 graves to the roughly 215,000 already in place on the sweeping lawns across the Potomac River from the nation's capital. An additional 77,000 remains are in columbariums, tombs for urns with cremated remains. Matt Strittmatter, 45, of Richmond, Ind., was making his fourth visit to the cemetery. He appreciated the bustle at what is normally a quiet place. "It's important for the families to have the option to bury their loved ones who've served here because of the sacrifice they made," he said. "War affects everyone. It affects the families. They've earned the honor."
The expansion means installing roads and utilities, building a new stone wall as a boundary, landscaping and creating 5,000 cremation niches. The work is necessary to accommodate the large number of veterans from World War II. "Their population is of an age where the passing rate is about 1,200 a day. They are the largest population of daily burials," said John Metzler, cemetery superintendent.
Arlington holds about 6,400 funerals a year, Monday through Friday. The peak year for deaths is expected to be 2008, when an estimated 30 funerals a day will be conducted.
The hilltop expansion, overlooking the Pentagon on one side and the Washington Monument on the other, was initially planned for 1990 but was delayed by money problems. It finally got under way in May.
The $12 million, 40-acre project will allow the cemetery to accommodate burials up to 2030. Two more expansions are planned, making enough space for ground burials for nearly six more decades. The last expansion was done in 1995. It involved 10 acres.
