Three Birches in perfect juxtaposition

If you go to Google Earth and type in US National Arboretum and look inside the arc of Meadow Road between Beechspring Road and Holly Spring Road, you will see, 2/3 of the way to Holly Spring Road, a huge tree, the Pin Oak that sits behind the left-hand birch. It is one heck of a tree. Scroll to the bottom (south end) of the Arboretum and find Maryland Avenue. Follow it til it ends at the US Capitol; the Capitol dome is a bit larger in diameter than the Oak Tree, just a bit. Its the largest tree at the Arboretum, it's just a quirk of perspective that makes the birches seem to be on a scale with it!

I love this view of the birches. If you were to create a triangle of birches in your mind and create the structures of the trees and the spacing, you would be hard put to do better than this. It is like a living triptych. It looks best from this view: that is, on Beechwood Road, halfway between Meadow Road and Azalea Road. You can drive right up to the birches on Meadow Road, but the effect is lost; they're still nice trees but the picture just isn't the same!