Mystery of White Flags Flying Atop Brooklyn Bridge in Place of American Flags

It is unclear how the American flags were removed from both towers, but police are investigating security footage. White flags are usually associated in military terms as the symbol of surrender.

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One of the white flags, viewed via video, appeared to have faint traces of stars and stripes on it.

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The NYPD's Emergency Service Unit replaced both flags by late Tuesday morning.

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A skateboarder and four young pals emerged Wednesday as the unlikely suspects who eluded around-the-clock NYPD security to scale the venerable Brooklyn Bridge and raise two white flags.

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Cops say the perpetrators likely had experience as climbers, construction workers or both to scale the 276-foot towers.

Detectives were tracking down all recent workers assigned to the bridge: construction contractors, city transportation workers and July 4 fireworks show employees, sources said.

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The latest incident came Sunday when a Russian man bypassed security gates and shimmied up one the historic bridge’s giant cables at high noon. The man, Yaroslav Kolchin, a visitor from Moscow, reached the top of one of the granite, Gothic-arched towers and then walked back and forth on its landing, snapping photos of the city with his iPhone.

The stunt comes just a month after two German artists, Matthias Wermke and Mischa Leinkauf, scaled both of the bridge’s 276-foot towers and replaced their American flags with handmade, all-white replicas during a 3 a.m. caper on July 22. The stunt embarrassed the NYPD and led to calls for greater security measures at the busy bridge, which includes an often-crowded center walkway.

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