Tidal Basin

The Long Bridge is constructed, occupying almost the exact position as the 14th Street Bridge today. It became so heavily used that Congress decided to build a second bridge, 75 feet downstream, with the area between the bridges becoming known as Potomac Flats.

Engineers propose to remove silt by dredging the Potomac River.

Civil engineer Alfred Landon Rives submits plans to reclaim 166 acres of mudflats near Long Bridge to make a park.

Work begins under Mr. T. Abert of the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge and deepen the river channel.

Major Hains of the Army Corps of Engineers completed the majority of the dredging and reclamation work. Two separate tracks of land were created; the southern area paralleled the old shoreline of the Potomac River and became known as East Potomac Park. This establishes the flow of water coming into the Tidal Basin from the Potomac through Inlet Bridge, and out into the Washington Channel through Outlet Bridge. The tip of East Potomac Park is now known as Hains Point.

Following the completion of the Washington Monument, engineers held some fears over the effects that the Babcock Lakes’ water had on the surrounding Monument grounds. As a precaution, the lakes and their fisheries were relocated to new ponds built on what is now the Tidal Basin. Additionally, the Fish Commission moved the aquarium to their headquarters in the old Armory Building, called Central Station, located near the current sites of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial and the National Air and Space Museum.

The Tidal Basin is officially completed.

Flooding washes away numerous fish out of the nursery ponds, reportedly in the millions. Such events contributed to the expansion of the common carp as an invasive species in the waterways around the Mall and across the Chesapeake Bay.

Congress passes Bill No. 3,307, which established the area of the Tidal Basin and former Potomac Flats as a public park for scenic and recreational purposes.

Control of the park’s 31 acres is transferred to the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds.

The Tidal Basin hatching ponds are closed and filled in.

The first cherry trees are planted by First Lady Helen Taft and Iwa Chinda, wife of the Ambassador of Japan.

The first Cherry Blossom festival occurs.

With construction set to begin on the Jefferson Memorial imminently, a group of fifty women march on the White House, armed with a petition to stop damage to the cherry trees that were to be uprooted by memorial construction. The following day, the same women chained themselves to a tree at the construction site, aiming to stop the work. This became known as the "Cherry Tree Rebellion."

The groundbreaking of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial occurs.

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is completed.

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is formally dedicated on Jefferson’s 200th birthday.

The City of Tokyo gifts the Japanese Stone Lantern to the City of Washington, commemorating the centennial of the Treaty of Kanagawa which brought the end of Japan’s isolationist period in 1854.

The Mayor of Yokohama (second largest city in Japan and the site of Commodore Matthew Perry’s gunboat diplomacy and Treaty of Kanagawa) gifts the Japanese Pagoda to the City of Washington. It was dedicated a year later on April 18, 1958.

The groundbreaking of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial occurs.

The construction for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial begins.

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is formally dedicated.

Ground is broken in the construction of the George Mason Memorial.

The George Mason Memorial is dedicated.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial groundbreaking occurs.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is opened to the public.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is formally dedicated.