The Maryland State Highway Administration will donate 31 sweet gum trees to the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City, to honor the 60 Marylanders killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A ceremony was to take place Monday afternoon as horticulturists begin transplanting the trees from their site along Route 50, just west of Vienna on the Eastern Shore.
“These beautiful trees are a fitting tribute to the 60 Marylanders who died that day,” SHA Administrator Neil Pedersen said in a statement.
The trees were chosen at least partly for their symbolic value: Their foliage begins to change from green to vivid red around Sept. 11, according to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.
