Others would allow the river to take back portions of the landscape or would replace the existing infrastructure with a mix of wetlands and sidewalks connecting a string of monument islands with raised walkways. Some would distance a more diverse selection of the sensitive trees from the water’s edge or cluster them around new landscape features, incorporating meadows and even small patches of forests into the National Mall.Ī couple of the concepts would create a substantial levee between the basin and the Potomac River that would protect more of the National Mall as a whole, which currently sits in the 100-year floodplain, while making room for marshlands. The cherry trees - originally gifted to the United States from Japan as a token of friendship more than a century ago - would still have a place in the concepts. “All of this area that’s like beach now … it had cherry trees.” Credit: Whitney PipkinĪlmost all of the ideas would replace some of the concrete bulkheads around the basin with natural perimeters that disappear and reappear with the tide. “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. 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. 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. A cherry tree in the Tidal Basin of Washington, DC, where visitors typically flock for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, struggles to survive amid the damage dealt by increased flooding from the Potomac River.

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