ABOUT THE BOOK
About The Book
UNLESS FIRST WE DREAM
The Story of The Great American Flag
Our story begins in the run up to America’s Bicentennial, and how an idea for a float in a small Vermont village parade ballooned into the making of a giant American flag to be hung on the world’s largest bridge at the entrance to New York Harbor welcoming the Tall Ships and the World to America’s biggest birthday party.
So captivating was the idea in an America still not over the disillusionment of the Vietnam War, and the shock of the Watergate betrayal that it seduced those involved that should have known, or had their doubts, that when the original positioning of the flag, freely hanging from the bridge close to the Brooklyn tower was nixed by the Coast Guard just weeks before Op Sail that no one wanted to abandon the idea. They were left with the only alternative a fixed position within the cable suspender ropes. In its trial run six days prior to OP SAIL, on a gentle summer morning the giant flag was raised and awed onlookers along the Brooklyn shoreline and in cars crossing the upper level of the bridge.
But, as is the norm on sunny summer days, the city heats up, the hot air rises drawing cooler air in through The Narrows at increasing speed fixing the flag against the suspender ropes. As the wind stiffened seams failed and fabric tore to pieces.
This happened not in a small Vermont village, but in America’s biggest city on the world’s largest bridge, leading up to America’s biggest birthday celebration. A stir it did cause. But surprisingly there was a silver lining. Hundreds of New Yorkers, individuals, clubs, companies, their pride and love of country awakened jammed switchboards volunteering help to repair the giant flag in time for the Tall Ships.
Repair was not possible, but the outpouring of patriotism could not be ignored. Engineering, and rebuilding a Great Flag was possible. And that is what ensued. The last chief engineer that designed the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, the Ironworkers that built the bridge, virtually America’s entire textile industry, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority that owned and operated the bridge, along with support from major corporations, joined forces to design and build a new Great Flag that could weather the winds and be displayed on most flag holidays
This is the story, an odyssey really, now 49 years and counting, of that Great Flag. And it comes at a time of America’s need. When the very fabric of our nation is under threat from the winds of disunity. And a great flag, big enough for all to come together under can inspire us.
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