A green giant: This year’s 74-foot Rockefeller Christmas tree is en route from Massachusetts

WEST STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A giant Norway spruce that will serve as this year’s Rockefeller Christmas tree was on its way to New York City from its small hometown in Massachusetts on Thursday.

The 75-foot-tall pine tree was cut down in West Stockbridge on Thursday morning and lifted onto a flatbed truck by crane. It will travel 140 miles (225 kilometers) to Rockefeller Center, where it will be built Saturday. The tree, with 50,000 multi-colored lights and a Swarovski star crown, will be on display until mid-January.

The towering fir, Rockefeller Center’s first Christmas tree to come from Massachusetts since 1959, has drawn a lot of attention in West Stockbridge. Locals and tourists alike have flocked in recent days to view the 11-ton tree as workers high in the canopy prepared it for its journey to New York.

City residents and outside visitors, some dressed as Santa Claus, watched from behind a barrier Thursday morning as workers felled the tree. While observers took photos and videos of the event, the local family who donated the tree gave interviews to the news media.