It’s one of the most famous photos in American history. You know the one. Three firefighters, covered in gray dust, hoisting an American flag over the twisted wreckage of the World Trade Center. It felt like a defiant "we're still here" in the middle of a nightmare. But if you think you know the whole story behind the 9 11 flag raising, you’re probably missing the weirdest part. The flag in that photo? It vanished. It was gone for over a decade.
Thomas E. Franklin was the guy who took the shot. He was a photographer for The Record of Bergen County, and honestly, he wasn't even supposed to be right there at that exact second. He was just doing his job, navigating the chaos of lower Manhattan on a Tuesday that felt like the end of the world. He saw Brooklyn firefighters George Johnson, Dan McWilliams, and Billy Eisengrein. They weren't looking for a photo op. They were just tired. They found a flag on a yacht—the Star of America—docked nearby at North Cove. They took it. They raised it. Franklin clicked the shutter.
Boom. History.
But history is messy. While that image was being plastered on postage stamps and posters to raise millions for relief efforts, the physical flag itself was caught up in a bizarre mystery that wouldn’t be solved until a random guy walked into a fire station in Washington state years later.
Why the 9 11 Flag Raising Almost Didn't Happen
People forget how much of a literal construction site—and graveyard—Ground Zero was in those first few hours. It wasn't a place for ceremonies. The 9 11 flag raising was a spontaneous act of "fine, we'll do it ourselves" grit. Dan McWilliams saw the flagpole on a piece of debris about twenty feet off the ground. He grabbed the flag from the yacht, recruited his buddies, and they just did it.
The flag wasn't even a "standard" size. It was a 3-by-5-foot flag. Small.
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When the photo went viral (well, the 2001 version of viral), the city wanted to use the flag for ceremonies. On September 23, during a prayer service at Yankee Stadium, a flag was produced. Everyone thought it was the flag. It was signed by Governor George Pataki and Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg. It flew over the site. It was eventually sent to the USS Theodore Roosevelt to fly during missions in Afghanistan.
Except it was the wrong one.
The Mystery of the Missing Flag
The yacht owner, Shirley Dreifus, noticed something was off pretty early. She looked at the flag the city was using and realized it was way too big. The flag from her boat was 3-by-5. The one the city was parading around was 5-by-8. It sounds like a small detail, but in the world of historical preservation, it's a massive deal. Somewhere in the frantic hand-offs of September 2001, the original flag—the one from the 9 11 flag raising photo—had been swapped.
Nobody knew where it went. For years, the most famous flag in modern American history was basically just... missing. People speculated. Maybe it was stolen. Maybe it was tossed in a pile of debris by someone who didn't realize what it was. It felt like a permanent loss.
Then came 2014.
A man who only identified himself as "Brian" walked into a fire station in Everett, Washington. He had a plastic bag. Inside was a flag. He told the firefighters he had seen a show on the History Channel about the missing flag and thought he had it. He claimed he’d been given it by a worker at NOAA who had been given it by an unknown person in New York. It sounded like a tall tale.
Proving the 9 11 Flag Raising was Real
The Bradhurst forensic experts had to get involved. This wasn't just a "looks like it" situation. They spent two years analyzing the Everett flag. They looked at the dust. They looked at the hardware. They compared the weave of the fabric to the high-resolution photos Franklin took on that Tuesday afternoon.
- They analyzed the halyard (the rope).
- They checked the specific metal clips used to attach it to the pole.
- They used X-ray fluorescence to look at the chemical composition of the dust still trapped in the fibers.
The dust matched. The hardware matched. The "Star of America" flag was finally found, thousands of miles away from the pile of rubble where it first became a symbol.
It’s easy to get cynical about symbols. Some people argue that focusing on a flag takes away from the human cost—the 2,977 lives lost. But for the people there, that 9 11 flag raising wasn't about politics or "branding." It was about a moment of sanity. If you talk to the firefighters who were there, they don't talk about it like they were posing for a monument. They talk about it like they were trying to find a reason to keep digging through the smoke.
The Cultural Impact of a Single Click
Thomas Franklin’s photo is often compared to the Iwo Jima flag raising. It has that same triangular composition. It’s got that same sense of "the fight isn't over." But the 9/11 version is grittier. There’s no clear sky. Everything is a sickly, monochromatic tan.
The image changed the lives of the three men in it, too. They didn't ask for the fame. They didn't get rich off it. In fact, for a long time, they stayed out of the spotlight. They were just guys doing their jobs who happened to be in the frame when a Pulitzer-finalist photo was born.
What We Get Wrong About the Site Today
A lot of people visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York and see the flag on display. It’s there now, finally. It was donated in 2016. But there’s a misconception that the 9 11 flag raising happened at the "official" flag pole of the World Trade Center. It didn't. It happened on a makeshift pole leaning out of the wreckage of what was once a pedestrian walkway over the West Side Highway.
The location matters because it shows how chaotic the perimeter was. The "Zone" wasn't a neat square. It was a jagged, smoking wound in the middle of a crowded city.
The fact that the flag was recovered at all is a miracle. Think about the logistics. Thousands of tons of steel were being hauled away every day. Dust was being washed off streets. Thousands of people were moving through the site. That a 3-foot piece of nylon survived and ended up in a fire house in Washington is almost statistically impossible.
Actionable Insights for History Enthusiasts
If you're interested in the actual history and the preservation of 9/11 artifacts, don't just look at the posters. The story is in the details.
- Visit the 9/11 Memorial Museum: The original flag is now housed there. Seeing it in person is different than seeing the photo. It’s small. It’s worn. It looks "real" in a way that the glossy reproductions don't.
- Research the "Star of America": Looking up the history of the yacht provides context on how the civilians in the harbor were part of the rescue and recovery efforts, often ignored in favor of the more "heroic" narratives.
- Study Forensic Preservation: The story of how the flag was authenticated is a masterclass in modern forensics. Look into the work of the forensic scientists who used particulate analysis to prove the flag was at Ground Zero.
- Support First Responder Charities: Many of the organizations formed in the wake of the 9 11 flag raising image, like the FDNY Foundation, still provide crucial support for the long-term health effects many survivors face today.
The 9 11 flag raising wasn't a PR stunt. It was a 20-foot climb by three exhausted men who wanted to see something other than gray for a few minutes. Whether the flag was in a box in Washington or behind glass in Manhattan, the image of that moment remains the definitive visual of American resilience.
To truly understand the event, look past the symbolism and look at the science of its recovery. The authenticity of the artifact is what gives the memory its weight. Check out the official archives at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum website to see the technical breakdown of the authentication process. It’s a reminder that even in total devastation, the truth usually finds a way to surface eventually.