English: Architect Paul Davidson of the National Park Service's Historic American Building Survey sets 3D laser scanning equipment up on the remains of the Sheridan Gate and the Ord-Weitzel Gate. Taken at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States, on August 14, 2012.

The sandstone columns for both gates were originally part of the War Department Building, located on the northwest grounds of the White House. When the building was dismantled in 1879, Montgomery Meigs, the Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army and the superintendent of the cemetery, had four of the columns and a marble entablature repurposed as the Sheridan Gate. Two stand-alone columns were repurposed as the Ord-Weitzel Gate. In 1971, Arlington National Cemetery expanded eastward toward the Potomac River. The gates were no longer on the edge of the cemetery, but now deep inside it. The gates were dismantled, and placed in storage on the cemetery grounds. They suffered from damage during dismantling and from exposure to the elements, vandalism, and neglect.

In 2012, the cemetery began working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine if the columns can be reassembled. The architectural team is surveying the columns, capitals, and entablatures to make detailed drawings of them as well. 3D laser scanning equipment is used to assist with the reconstruction and drawings.