Tourists often try to time their visits to Washington to coincide with the annual blooming of its famous cherry blossom trees along the Tidal Basin in April, and inevitably, someone tells them that the trees originally came from Japan as a gesture of international friendship. But the complete story is a bit more complicated, and includes plenty of odd twists and turns.
The saga starts in 1909, after William Howard Taft was sworn in as President. His wife, Helen Taft, had the ambition of hosting outdoor concerts in the Tidal Basin, in the days before the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials were built. But the area was fairly nondescript, and Mrs. Taft decided that it needed some decoration.
Read Full Article »