This Christmas tree sure knows how to make an entrance.
The 74-foot-tall Lutz spruce, weighing in at a whopping 7,500 pounds, arrived at the U.S. Capitol's West Front Lawn all the way from Alaska on Friday morning, temporarily halting traffic on Washington's First Street along the way.
Due to the arrival of the Capitol Tree, First Street (Pennsylvania Avenue, NW-Maryland Avenue, SW) is temporarily closed. #dctraffic
— SenateSergeantAtArms (@SenateSAA) November 20, 2015
Once it arrived at the Capitol, the tree was lifted by crane onto the West Lawn, where it will be decorated with thousands of ornaments handmade in Alaska.
The 2015 Capitol Tree was hand-picked from the Chugach National Forest, and is the first such tree to come from Alaska, as well as the first to travel by both sea and land. Its 4,000 mile journey to Washington, which began Oct. 27, was documented in a blog post and tweets by the U.S. Capitol.
Our team is excited to deliver the @USCapitolTree. In a few short hours the tree will be standing at the @uscapitol pic.twitter.com/ADiR7uBq4i
— Chugach Natl Forest (@ChugachForestAK) November 20, 2015
Selecting the Lutz's Spruce for the 2015 Capitol Christmas Tree https://t.co/UMBGURkSEr pic.twitter.com/OOu24mXbam
— Bill Blevins (@billblevins) November 20, 2015
The Capitol Christmas Tree has been lifted off of the truck. In holding pattern b/c it's too windy to raise up pic.twitter.com/GQajKrsfPw
— USDA Forest Service (@forestservice) November 20, 2015
The 74', 7,500 pound Capitol Christmas tree (a Lutz spruce) is airborne! pic.twitter.com/l7Zylx9JDU
— U.S. Capitol (@uscapitol) November 20, 2015
AOC staff prepare the Capitol Christmas tree for the final leg of its journey -- up the West Lawn. pic.twitter.com/kaatbVamGI
— U.S. Capitol (@uscapitol) November 20, 2015
The Capitol Christmas tree has arrived on First Street NW! #hyperlapse pic.twitter.com/O72za7hdUP
— U.S. Capitol (@uscapitol) November 20, 2015
ICYMI: From Alaska with Love – The 2015 Capitol Christmas tree arrived this morning. https://t.co/roRSnNWmW8 pic.twitter.com/8XpgD5RVW5
— U.S. Capitol (@uscapitol) November 20, 2015
The tree has been delivered and all road closures in the area are now open. #dctraffic
— SenateSergeantAtArms (@SenateSAA) November 20, 2015
The lighting of the Capitol Tree is scheduled for Dec. 2. In the meantime, it looks like staff will be hard at work decorating the massive spruce for the annual ceremony.