World War I naval memorial and steps on Gibraltar’s Line Wall.
The American War Memorial, formally the Naval Monument at Gibraltar, is a World War I memorial on Line Wall Road in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Built for the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1933 and inaugurated in 1937, it commemorates the successful United States–United Kingdom naval alliance near Gibraltar.
The American War Memorial, more formally known as the Naval Monument at Gibraltar and also called the American Steps, is a World War I naval monument in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, near the north end of Line Wall Road at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. Built for the American Battle Monuments Commission and constructed between 1932 and 1933, it was incorporated into the main city wall, the Line Wall Curtain, at Prince Albert’s Front. The steps provide pedestrian access between the town above and Royal Navy facilities below, linking to Reclamation Road, Fish Market Lane and Queensway. Designed by French‑born architect Paul Philippe Cret, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the memorial was inaugurated in October 1937, when Rear Admiral Arthur P. Fairfield delivered the inaugural address on behalf of General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing. An inscription over the arch records that it was erected by the United States of America to commemorate the achievements and comradeship of the American and British navies in this vicinity during the World War. On the opposite side of the masonry arch, two bronze medallions depict the seals of the United States and its Department of the Navy.
