Newport News Victory Arch

It is located on 25th Street and West Avenue in downtown Newport News, near the Jessie M. Rattley Municipal Center.

During that period, the City Council for Newport News ended up appropriating more money for maintenance of the arch — approximately seven thousand dollars — than it took to build it originally.

Although Newport News served as a Port of Embarkation again during World War II, returning troops did not march under the arch, in part because of its fragile condition.

The area became subject to commercial development, so much so that at one point each side of the arch sat on the property of a different gas station.

Passersby were subject to falling stucco and dangers from the traffic pattern surrounding the arch that made it into a 50-foot tall blind spot.

As a committee of veterans and volunteers began to make fund-raising plans, there was some concern from others in the community that they were attempting to replace a "dead monument," and that a park, civic center, school, or hospital would prove to be more functional and useful to the city's citizens.

This led Charlie Covington, the city treasurer, to remark, "Since there are 670 names on Victory Arch plaques, that works out to about one third of a penny per day per person.