[High Praise! to Anonymiss of Nuking Politics for telling me about this]

The world’s tallest flagpole was erected in Sheboygan, WI.

400 feet tall.

It looks… a little odd… when photographed from a distance. Like someone who doesn’t know how to draw flagpoles correctly did a really bad photoshop job:

This picture gives you a better perspective on just how monstrously huge this thing is:

Anonymiss sent me a couple pics she got while driving by it:

For even more awesome pictures, just do an image search for “Sheboygan flagpole” (without quotes).

I guarantee they’ll give you Independence Day tingles like you ain’t had in years.

Oh, and here’s a great article full of nerdy engineering & construction details from the American Society of Civil Engineers site. For example:

—–

“A site-specific wind and climate report determined that the flagpole should be designed for a low service temperature of -41 degrees Celsius. The analysis also considered minimum and maximum wind loading using criteria established by ASCE 7: Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE, 2013) for icy and nonicy weather conditions. A subsequent wind analysis by APE, Inc., revealed that the flagpole would be subject to significant cross-wind response, causing it to oscillate substantially-a phenomenon known as vortex shedding. To reduce the movement and suppress the first three modes of vibration on the pole, three pendulum-style tuned-mass dampers will be suspended at various heights within the flagpole. “A slender piece of steel cantilevered out of the ground like a flagpole will oscillate with very low inherent dampening-well below one percent of critical,” Blomgren explains. “With the dampers, we are increasing it to two to three percent dampening.”

—–

Mmmm… tuned-mass dampers…