[2][3][4] It was erected for a parade in honor of Admiral George Dewey celebrating his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines in 1898.

The architect Charles R. Lamb built support for a triumphal arch among his fellow members of the National Sculpture Society.

[6] A committee of society members, including Lamb, Karl Bitter, Frederick W. Ruckstull, John Quincy Adams Ward and John De Witt Warner,[7] submitted a proposal for an arch to the City of New York, which approved the plan in July 1899.

An attempt to raise money to rebuild it in stone (as had been done for the arch in Washington Square Park) failed, owing to the growing unpopularity of the Philippine War.

The arch was demolished in 1900,[4] and the larger sculptures sent to Charleston, South Carolina, for an exhibit, after which they were either destroyed or lost.