AMY WESTFELDT
AP
Thursday, December 21, 2006

An American flag plastered on the first steel column for the Freedom Tower at ground zero was removed Wednesday after the builders realized the stars and stripes were on the wrong side.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey removed the decal on the 31-foot column after The Associated Press and other media questioned the display, with the 50 stars on the right side instead of the left. Readers also called the AP after seeing the news agency's photograph of the column in Wednesday newspapers.

"When it's laying down, it's correct," said Bill Dolphin, 73, of Ocala, Fla. "When it gets lifted up into the air, the blue field should be on the other side."

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 the ground, the flag was horizontal and the stars were on the left, Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said.

Once a giant crane raised the column, the flag was also vertical, with the stars on the right, Coleman said.

A decal that puts the stars and stripes in the correct place will be put on the column Thursday or Friday, Coleman said.

The column was one of two raised in a ceremony Tuesday. A third column covered with signatures of New Yorkers and Sept. 11 victims' relatives, as well as pictures of some firefighters killed in the 2001 attack will be installed in the coming days. In about 18 months, concrete will cover the flag and the columns as construction of the 1,776-foot building to replace the twin towers continues.

But the stars and stripes should be in the right place until then, said Joan Bury, 71, of Aberdeen, N.J., who said she found the wrong-way flag "disgraceful" when she saw it in her morning newspaper.

After learning that the flag would be set right, she said: "I'm so happy they're going to take care of that."