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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Police investigate switch of flags on Brooklyn Bridge

Police officers stand at the base of a white flag flying Tuesday atop the west tower of the Brooklyn Bridge. (Associated Press)
Associated Press

NEW YORK – Police are searching for four or five people they believe scaled to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge’s two towers in the dead of night, disabled lights illuminating two large American flags and then replaced the flags with bleached-white ones.

The security breach at one of the city’s more secured landmarks didn’t appear to be the work of terrorists or even a political statement, said the police department’s deputy commissioner for counterterrorism and intelligence, but likely was done by people familiar with climbing or bridgework who may even have scaled the bridge before.

“We don’t take these things lightly, or as a joke, or as art or within the realm of speech,” John Miller said. “These are issues of trespass – they put themselves in danger, they put others in danger – and that’s why we investigate it.”

Video footage of the security breach shows the unidentified people walking on the bridge’s footpath at about 3:10 a.m., and 20 minutes later the light on the bridge’s Brooklyn tower flickers and goes dark, Miller said. The same thing happens about 12 minutes later on the Manhattan tower, he said.

At about 5:30 a.m., construction workers noticed the white flags, apparently American flags about 20 feet by 11 feet and perhaps commercial grade, with faded stars and stripes, police said. Police removed the white flags just before noon.

The flags fly from above the pillars year-round and are replaced by transportation workers when they become frayed, about every two months, police said. They are lit at night by a lamp at the base of each tower– lights that were covered by aluminum foil cooking sheets secured with zip ties, Miller said.

More than 120,000 vehicles, 4,000 pedestrians and 3,100 cyclists cross the Brooklyn Bridge every day, said the city’s Department of Transportation, which maintains it.