The effort asked five landscape architect firms to “draw outside the lines,” Durkin said, producing futuristic renderings of a basin that would accommodate the river’s natural contours and hydrology, and perhaps at the same time tell a more diverse set of U.S. In response, the trusts and park service recruited some of the country’s top landscape architects to rethink the Tidal Basin’s relationship with the river and the public.Ī $750,000 grant from American Express helped the groups launch a three-year project to gather creative solutions for the site, culminating in the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab. Given predictions that climate change will push high tides even higher in coming years-placing the Jefferson Memorial under as much as 4 feet of water at times by 2040-repairs won’t go far enough to save the historic landscape. Increasing public awareness of the problems is one of the reasons these two trusts teamed up with the National Park Service to reimagine the Tidal Basin’s future. “It’s such a beautiful place, and you may not be aware of these challenges unless you’re there at high tide.” “I think people tend to gloss over when they go to the basin,” said Seri Worden, senior field director for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Though it’s located in the nation’s most-visited national park, many don’t realize the ground they’re standing on while taking in the blossoms is in such bad shape. The 107-acre landscape is in need of an estimated $500 million in repairs and upgrades. That’s in part because the tide levels are rising while the land and structures-situated like much of the city on hundreds of acres of former wetlands-are sinking, a phenomenon that’s exacerbated by heavy foot and vehicle traffic.įor these reasons, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Tidal Basin one of America’s most endangered historic places in 2019.

Army Corps of Engineers are now regularly overwhelmed by the waters they were meant to contain. The Tidal Basin was carved into this landscape in the late 1800s as an engineered solution for tidal flooding from the Potomac River. Rising tides overwhelm portions of the sea wall twice daily at the Tidal Basin, leaving holes and crumbling pavement in their wake. “All of this area that’s like beach now…it had cherry trees.” “At high tide today around 4 o’clock, this will completely disappear,” said Teresa Durkin, executive vice president of the Trust for the National Mall, during a walk on one of the now-sandy paths around the Tidal Basin in March. The regular brackish-water baths have also wreaked havoc on the cherry trees closest to the basin.

But its paths, when they aren’t underwater, are cratered with muddy holes and, in places, eroded away entirely, replaced by debris-littered beaches. The Tidal Basin-flanked by stately memorials to Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr.-is a gateway to more than peak blooms. The water flowing into the basin from the Potomac River rises up and over its sea wall twice daily, at each high tide. For the second straight year, festival organizers are warning people to visit virtually-not only because of the coronavirus pandemic-but because the popular gathering spot faces growing problems with accessibility and safety hazards caused by regular flooding. By Whitney Pipkin, Bay Journal News ServiceĪ visit to the Tidal Basin in the District of Columbia should deliver sweeping views of cherry trees heavy with pink and white blooms this time of year, drawing millions of onlookers to the concrete shorelines annually.īut not this spring.

Tidal basin cherry blossoms