Technology Slice Blog

Capitol Christmas Tree Arrives - If you think setting up your Christmas tree is difficult, imagine trying to center a 67-foot spruce. That's the task at hand on the front lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The Capitol Christmas tree arrived early Monday morning from Hershey, Penn., but its journey began in Wyoming. "We have a 67-foot-tall Englemann Spruce tree that was harvested about 40 miles north of Jackson Hole, Wyo., from the Bridger-Teton National Forest," said Capitol Christmas Tree Coordinator Mary Cernicek. "It's 83 years old, weighs 9,000 pounds and it took a little bit more than a mile of rope to wrap around that tree to get it to actually fit inside the eight-foot box that carried it across the country." How long did it take to get to D.C.? "Well, that was a long trip by design. We did 22 stops in Wyoming, we did 12 across the nation. We started our tour on Nov. 10," Cernicek said. The Capitol Christmas tree-lighting is scheduled for ...