GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — What has been billed as the largest flying American flag in the world on a flagpole is in Gaston County near Crowder’s Mountain.
It was erected in 1999 and can be seen for 30 miles.
[ IMAGES: World's largest flying American Flag flies in Gastonia ]
The flag is 65 feet tall and 114 feet wide. It measures 7,410 total square feet and weighs 180 pounds, according to a Los Angeles Times article from 1999. The flagpole is 225 feet tall.
Each stripe on the flag is 5 feet tall and each star measures more than 4 feet across.
It was organized by Gastonia AMVETS Post 920.
According to veterans who traveled across the country to raise money for the 7-year project, there are two flags that are bigger in California, but neither is flown.
The world’s largest free-flying American flag hangs over the George Washington Bridge. It was put up in 2013.
"It is the most important symbol we have and unique among all the symbols of the world," retired Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, a Medal of Honor recipient and president of the Citizens Flag Alliance, said.