Construction on Taller White House Fence to Begin this Summer

The fence around the White House will grow by five feet this summer.

• By Sydny Shepard
• May 28, 2019

The fence that surrounds the White House will grow by five feet this summer. The new fence will be the first time the perimeter of the grounds have been altered in almost a century. 

The fence installation is part of plans to improve the perimeter of the grounds, according to an article by The Washington Post. Crews will begin this summer on replacing the now six foot fence (which stands on top of a two-foot stone wall) with one that will be 13 feet tall. The new fence will include an 18-inch, aboveground stone base at the bottom, a 10-foot, 7-inch metal fence and a one-foot tall "anti-climb feature" at the top.

The fence has largely remained the same since the early 1900s when a six foot fence was installed on top of a stone wall that had been added when Thomas Jefferson was president. The only alteration that had been made since was the addition of spikes at the top of the fence following 9/11.

Changes will also be made to six vehicular and nine pedestrian gates around the perimeter of the White House.

The changes will cost nearly $64 million and come after several incidents of intruders attempting to scale the fence to gain entrance to the White House grounds. Just last January a 55-year-old woman attempted to jump a barrier and a Virginia man tried to get into the White House saying he wanted to help President Trump, "bring peace to the world."