Flag
ACUITY raised the tallest flagpole in the United States on July 2, 2005. The steel pole is 338 feet (103 m) high, 6 feet (1.8 m) wide at the base, weighs 65 tons (without the flag), and is sunk into a 550-ton block of concrete that is 40 feet (12 m) deep, 8 feet (2.4 m) wide and reinforced by steel rods. The flag is 120 feet (37 m) by 60 feet (18 m), or 7,200 square feet (670 m²). Each star is 3 feet (0.91 m) high and each stripe is 4½ feet wide. It weighs 300 pounds. This flag and flagpole outdid an earlier Acuity record, a flag raised June 2, 2003, atop a 150-foot (46 m) flagpole. Oddly enough, the new flagpole is actually a replacement; the old pole toppled over due to stress and high winds, almost falling onto nearby Interstate 43. The new flagpole is designed with extra bracing and placed much farther from the highway. A powered hoist raises the flag at 80 feet (24 m) per minute, regardless of wind conditions, and is synchronized so that the flag reaches the top of the pole just as the Star Spangled Banner ends. On October 4, 2007 it was announced that the flag pole would yet again be rebuilt to allow access to the beacon marker on top in case of light bulb replacement. The flag was rebuilt and the top section finished on April 4, 2008. On April 7, 2008 the pole, without a flag yet flying, began swaying noticeably during relatively low wind speeds. On April 8, 2008 the ball and top section were again removed.
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Famous quotes containing the word flag:
““Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
The End”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Hath not the morning dawned with added light?
And shall not evening call another star
Out of the infinite regions of the night,
To mark this day in Heaven? At last, we are
A nation among nations; and the world
Shall soon behold in many a distant port
Another flag unfurled!”
—Henry Timrod (1828–1867)