The District’s famous cherry blossoms are getting close to peak bloom, but the 2025 season also coincides with National Park Service reconstruction work along the Tidal Basin that will restrict some walking paths.
The project to rebuild sea walls already saw more than 100 of the trees between the Jefferson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorials removed last year. When completed, the Tidal Basin area will have new sidewalks for visitors and restored walls capable of blocking water from inundating both sidewalks and replanted cherry trees nearby.
NPS expects to finish work on the reconstruction project in 2026. In the interim, crowds coming to D.C. to see the cherry blossoms will have to grapple with narrower walkways at certain points.
NPS currently expects the cherry blossoms to reach peak bloom between March 28 and March 31. The trees reached the fourth stage of their bloom Thursday; stalks along the branches of the trees have elongated, which will allow for early blossoms to puff out once the trees start the fifth stage of blooming.
“The flow should not be impacted. The entire walkway around the tidal basin is still open this year. At a couple of points where there’s some fencing, it’s going to narrow, but we specifically designed it with cherry blossom season in mind so that there wouldn’t be dead ends and everybody having to go the other way and cross out,” National Mall and Memorial Parks spokesperson Mike Litterst told WTTG-TV.
People also could see barges bringing in materials for the seawalls up the Potomac River.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival, which started Thursday, will open a welcoming area for visitors Saturday along the Tidal Basin in concert with NPS, including musical performances, information tents and food and merchandise vendors, National Mall and Memorial Parks officials wrote on Facebook.
