Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Has Jersey Roots

NEW YORK -- A 74-foot-tall Norway spruce was chopped down and transported to Manhattan on Wednesday to be this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

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'05 Images: Tree Raised | Tree Arrives | Tree Cut
Videos: Tree Installed | Arrives | Chopped
2004: Tree Lighting | Star Hoisted Atop Tree| Tree Cut
2003: Rockefeller Christmas Tree Cut And Loaded

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Weighing nine tons and boasting a 42-foot limb span, the tree was loaded onto a 115-foot-long trailer and transported to the city. The tree, Rockefeller Center's 73rd, is to be hoisted into place next to the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center on Thursday morning.

Last year's tree, a 71-foot-tall Norway spruce, came from Suffern, N.Y.

The first Rockefeller Center tree was put up in 1931 by workers helping to build the complex, and the first formal tree-lighting ceremony took place in 1933.