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Every spring, Washingtonians from around the metropolitan area and those visitors lucky enough to be in town for this ephemeral display flock to the Jefferson Memorial Tidal Basin for the annual blooming of the famous cherry trees. |
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On March 27, 1912, first lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River Tidal Basin. The event celebrated the Japanese government's gift of 3,020 trees to the United States. Trees were planted along the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial and on the White House grounds. In 1965, the Japanese government made another gift of cherry trees. Lady Bird Johnson participated in the planting, which took place on the grounds of the Washington Monument. Theodor Horydczak, the photographer who shot this image of the cherry trees, also is responsible for what may be the most unusual photograph of the Washington Monument: an image of himself on a scaffold at the top of the obelisk, which was capped with a 9-inch pyramid of cast aluminum, completing construction of the 555-foot structure. |
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