A gaff-rigged flagpole
The flagpole you see before you is a gaff-rigged with a yardarm or crosstree. The pole is 40 feet tall and 8 inches in diameter at its base. It sits in a 12 inch by 48 inch steel flagpole ground sleeve buried approximately 2 feet in the ground and surrounded with about 3,000 pounds of concrete to a level 2 feet above the ground. This base is concealed by a 14-foot circular raised platform capped by a paved surface with a compass rose inlay. The point of the compass rose directly opposite you faces approximately north.

The proper way to fly the flag
Many people are confused about the proper way to fly the American flag from a gaff-rigged pole. While there is no law specifying how the US flag should be flown on a gaff-rigged pole, long standing tradition dictates that the national ensign (US flag) should be flown from the gaff and other flags (state, county, or organizational) should be flown at the masthead and on the yardarm.

The rationale for this long-standing practice is that when the US ensign is flown from a gaff-rigged pole, a flag flown at the top of the mast is not considered above the ensign because it is not being flown directly above the ensign on the same halyard. The US ensign should be flown from the highest point of honor, and over time, that has
become the peak of the gaff.

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Show me all markers in:  Deltaville, VA  |  Middlesex County  |  23043  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

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