Obama Touts 3,000 Virginia Jobs From Civil War Monument Creation

President Barack Obama will designate a deactivated Army facility in Virginia that is rich in Civil War history as a national monument, a step the White House said could create almost 3,000 jobs while limiting development around the site.

“Fort Monroe has played a part in some of the darkest and some of the most heroic moments in American history,” the president said in a statement.

Obama is scheduled to sign a proclamation today at the White House, making the designation under the Antiquities Act. It will be his first such designation as president, adding the Hampton, Virginia, site to a list that includes the Grand Canyon and Ellis Island.

Dutch traders brought some of the first African slaves to the site in 1619. During the Civil War, slaves escaped to and were emancipated at the Union-held fort dubbed Freedom’s Fortress before President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Jefferson Davis, who led the Confederacy, was imprisoned at Fort Monroe for two years after the war.

At the same time, Obama said that “today isn’t just about preserving a national landmark — it’s about helping to create jobs and grow the local economy.”

The White House is packaging the proclamation as part of Obama’s “we can’t wait” campaign, a series of executive actions he says he is taking because Congress isn’t doing enough to address the economy and job creation. The strategy is meant to pressure congressional Republicans to pass provisions in his $447 billion jobs package that includes infrastructure spending and tax breaks.

Executive OrdersIn the past week Obama also has signed executive orders intended to help some homeowners with underwater mortgages, veterans, student loan holders and patients who rely on certain medications.

Citing an analyst commissioned by the Fort Monroe Authority in 2009, the White House said in a statement that preserving the majority of the buildings in the fort#146;s 570-acre historic landmark district and as well as landscapes and viewing areas would create almost 3,000 jobs in the state.

Fourteen presidents starting with Theodore Roosevelt have made designations under the Antiquities Act, according to the White House.