Washington ? A helicopter extraction from a mountaintop forest. Two miles of parachute cord. A police escort.

A hostage rescue? Not quite. Just a few of the preparations necessary on Monday to get the U.S. Capitol’s Christmas tree from Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to the nation’s capital.

“The hardest part of the whole trip was just getting everything lined up,” said Keith Garman, the service manager for Camrett Logistics, the company in Rural Retreat, Va., that volunteered a semi truck to transport the 67-foot red spruce from George Washington National Forest to the Capitol’s lawn. Cut down Nov. 2, the tree visited more than 30 Virginia towns en route to Washington.

Federal lawmakers adopted the tradition of the Capitol Christmas tree in 1964. Since 1970, it’s been cut from Forest Service land, and this year’s is the first from Virginia.

With help from the Capitol Architect’s office, Forest Service officials whittled the pool of eligible native Virginian evergreens to one 79-year-old spruce last July. Once cut, a helicopter plucked it from the forest. Workers tied its branches with parachute cord and steered it onto Camrett’s specially built flatbed trailer for highway transport.

The White House’s Christmas tree, a comparatively small 18-and-a-half-foot Noble fir donated by John and Carol Tillman of Rochester, Wash., also arrived Monday. First lady Laura Bush received the tree, which was delivered by horse-drawn wagon.

On Monday morning, a crane eased the mammoth Capitol spruce into position on the Capitol’s lawn, where it now sits in a poured concrete footing, 5 feet deep. It’ll be decorated with 5,000 oversized ornaments — made mostly by Virginia schoolchildren — and 10,000 light bulbs before Dec. 9, when House Speaker Dennis Hastert will preside over its ceremonial lighting.

“We’re very proud of it,” Catherine Humphrey of Pulaski, Va., said as she watched its arrival with her sister, Elaine Petersen of Alexandria, Va.

The White House Christmas tree arrives on a horse-drawn wagon. The tree, which arrived Monday, is a, 18 1/2-foot Noble fir donated by John and Carol Tillman from Rochester, Wash. A 67-foot Christmas tree was also set up Monday at the U.S. Capitol.