After years of waiting for something to happen with Ground Zero development, even the much-awaited installation of Freedom Tower's first steel beams has a problem. Luckily, it's a cosmetic one - although it's also a patriotic issue. It turns out that the flag painted on the first steel beam installed was painted the wrong way. From the AP:
The Port Authority removed the decal on the 31-foot column after media outlets and readers questioned the display of the flag, with the 50 stars on the right side instead of the left.
Federal flag code requires that, whether displayed horizontally or vertically, the blue field displaying 50 stars is always on the left side to the viewer. When construction workers put the decal onto the column as it lay on its side at Ground Zero, the stars were on the left and in the correct spot, said PA spokesman Steve Coleman.
Doh! Coleman says the flag was "inadvertently put in the wrong position," and that a new decal will be placed by tomorrow. It better be - that flag on that beam represents everything about America. And we guess a hologram of a flag that would move to the proper position was too tacky.
Photographs of the first steel beam being installed at Ground Zero by Kathy Willens/AP
