"Where flowers bloom, so does hope"

First Lady Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, known as Lady Bird, became famous for nationwide beautification initiatives and, during her years as First Lady from 1963 to 1969, championed legislation on pollution, conservation, urban renewal, and other environmental rehabilitation concerns. She was credited with raising the president’s awareness of women’s rights equality, furthering environmental stewardship, and promoting the war on poverty, and after Lyndon Johnson’s presidential term she continued serving the country in advisory positions in later administrations. Across the footbridge, Lady Bird Johnson Park occupies an island originally named Columbia Island because it is part of the District of Columbia, with the waterway between the island and Virginia called the Boundary Channel. The man-made island was built in the early 1900s to facilitate construction of Arlington Memorial Bridge. In the 1960s, Lady Bird Johnson acted through her beautification committee to coordinate the planting of over a million daffodils, a few thousand dogwood trees, and other native vegetation on the island, one example of the places she worked to beautify in the District of Columbia. In 1968, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall renamed the island Lady Bird Johnson Park to honor her extensive work revitalizing public parks and green spaces across the country.

Arlington, Virginia · United States