I know what happened to this tree.
I know it because I’ve been walking around Lake Ella park nearly every single day for going on four years. At least, on average, six days a week in every possible kind of weather Keely and I wander around and sometimes look at things.
This tree used to be much taller, and most of the year it is hard to see that because of all the greenery it sports. It was not, as most people guess, purposefully cut down to size. The top half (and it truly was about half the original tree) was somehow knocked down during a hurricane. I remember coming out early one morning while debris was still all over the ground, making a little obstacle course for Keely, and seeing the tree had broken in half.
I am not an arborist, so I don’t know anything about this kind of tree, but I wonder what weakness it had in its core that made is susceptible to being broken like that. It’s healthy otherwise, but something in that storm hit it so hard it essentially decapitated it. Not completely, as it was still attached enough to keep it tipped down and not falling off completely.
The top half hung there for a while — it had toppled into the water, so it was not a danger to anyone — before the City got around to cutting it off completely.
It is now a short, squat tree and I wonder if anyone but me knows the real reason why.
The secret history of cities, I suppose.