Army Corps' connection to Washington, D.C., cherry trees

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES

03.24.2016

Photo by Cynthia Mitchell  

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District

Beginning in the 1880s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) transformed the unsightly Potomac Flats in the District of Columbia by dredging the river channel and dumping the spoil on the Flats, thus creating new land to the south of the National Mall. On March 25, 1912, work began on one of the best-known Corps improvements as more than 3,000 flowering cherry trees, a gift from Tokyo to the District, arrived to replace an earlier shipment of diseased trees. On the afternoon of March 27, 1912, the First Lady, Mrs. William Howard Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador, planted the first two cherry trees beside the Tidal Basin, where eleven years of care had created a perfect setting. Workers from the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, headed by Engineer Col. Spencer Cosby, proceeded to carefully lay out and plant 1,800 Yoshino cherry trees around the Basin. The remaining trees, of eleven other cherry tree varieties, were later planted on the White House grounds and throughout the city. Historically, the Yoshino cherry tree species enjoys a life span of about 40 years. Amazingly, an estimated 125 (or about 4 percent) of the original trees, including the first two planted, are now 90-years-old and still dazzling visitors in springtime.

• Date Taken: 03.24.2016
• Date Posted: 03.29.2017 11:31
• Photo ID: 3269950
• VIRIN: 160324-O-ZP796-418
• Resolution: 2048x1272
• Size: 222.14 KB
• Location: WASHINGTON, DC, US