DAR sponsor new flag over Highway 80 bridge
Published 4:30 pm Saturday, January 25, 2025
A crowd gathered at the Mississippi Welcome Center Thursday for the quarterly American flag-raising ceremony.
Hosted by the Army Navy Club of Vicksburg, the ceremony is held every three months to replace the flag which is flown above the Old Mississippi River Bridge.
Chairman of the Flag Committee, Norman Francingues, spoke at the ceremony before the flag-raising.
In his remarks, Francingues paraphrased his predecessor, Lewis Decell.
“Lewis said that our nation’s flag flying on the Highway 80 bridge reminds us of how capable we are to live together with respect for individual dignity and the right of self-determination. The flag on the bridge is more than a thing of beauty and honor. It is a symbol of freedom,” he said. “And so in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution for our freedom, we want today to recognize all of those American Revolution patriots from the start of the American Revolution, April 19, 1775, through the end of the Revolution with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783.”
The ceremony was sponsored by the Ashmead Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The flag being replaced was presented to the group to recognize its sponsorship.
The flag, a sizable 20-feet by 30- feet, is made of nylon, and weighs about 21 pounds. Francingues also said that, to his knowledge, it is the only American flag to be flown over the Mississippi River from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico.
The ceremony has taken place quarterly since the first raising on April 13, 1994. Since then, there have been 90 sponsors of the event, with some sponsors donating multiple times.