District of Columbia Washington DC 6x10 Feet Nylon Flag Made in USA

A 6x10 foot flag is where a state flag stops being residential. Sixty square feet is a commercial flag on a commercial flagpole, and it is the last size finished with grommets rather than rope.

This is the District of Columbia state flag at 6x10 Feet in nylon, made in the United States and finished with brass grommets.

Built to the District of Columbia flag specification

The District of Columbia flag is set out in District of Columbia Code Section 1-151, under an Act of Congress of June 16, 1938 that created a three member District Flag Commission. It is a white field with three red five-pointed stars above two red horizontal bars, at a proportion of one to two.

Designed by the artist Charles A. R. Dunn, who first conceived it around 1917 to 1921; chosen from roughly fifty contest entries, officially adopted October 15, 1938, and first flown October 23, 1938.

The statute for this flag describes the design, the colors and the seal or emblem, but it does not fix an overall size that a modern outdoor flag has to match. That is the normal position across most of the country, and it is why every manufacturer builds state flags in the same standard sizes.

We reproduce that design faithfully, in the standard outdoor flag sizes the whole industry uses and that the states themselves buy. What matters on an outdoor flag is that the colors, the seal and the emblems are right, and they are.

The law that defines it, in its own words

District of Columbia Code Section 1-151, District of Columbia official flag reads:

The flag of the District of Columbia shall be 3 red stars in the upper portion of the flag (the chief), with 2 red horizontal bars on a field of white. All proportions described in this section are expressed in relation to the flag's vertical dimension (the hoist). The chief shall be 3/10 of the hoist, the horizontal red bars shall be 2/10, the base and white space between the 2 bars shall be 2/10 and 1/10, respectively. The red stars shall be 2/10 in diameter, and shall be spaced equidistant in the fly. The length of the fly shall depend on the proportions of the flag upon which this design may be displayed.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read District of Columbia Code Section 1-151 in full at the DC Council, and check what we sell against it.

This is the flag we make. Not an approximation of it.

What is on it and what it means

The flag is an armorial banner of the Washington family coat of arms, blazoned argent two bars gules, in chief three mullets of the second. The arms trace to the family’s English roots at Washington in Tyne and Wear and Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire, confirmed to Lawrence Washington in 1592 under Elizabeth the First. George Washington used them at Mount Vernon, and they appear on Andrew Ellicott’s 1792 map of the city.

What most listings get wrong

The three stars do not represent the three branches of government, and they do not represent the three District Commissioners. They are the three mullets of the Washington family arms, pure heraldry with no hidden civic meaning. The flag is also not old: it dates only to 1938, and for nearly a hundred and fifty years the District had no official flag at all. And credit was wrongly given for years to Commissioner Melvin Hazen and the heraldry expert Arthur Du Bois. Dunn reclaimed authorship in a 1957 article.

It is the only flag in this catalog drawn directly from a family coat of arms, and it placed first among all city flags in the 2004 survey.

Where the District of Columbia flag flies

Across the District on government buildings, at the John A. Wilson Building, and widely by residents and businesses. It has been embraced as a symbol of the statehood and voting rights movement.

The United States Marine Corps War Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial, at Arlington Ridge Park in Arlington, Virginia, is a colossal bronze by Felix de Weldon with figures thirty two feet high, depicting the second flag raising on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 from Joe Rosenthal's photograph. It was dedicated November 10 1954 by President Eisenhower, and by Presidential Proclamation 3418 of June 12, 1961 President Kennedy ordered a real cloth United States flag flown there twenty four hours a day, every day.

The flag is highly regarded by vexillologists. It ranked first with a score of nine point one seven out of ten, edging Chicago at nine point zero three, in the North American Vexillological Association's 2004 American City Flags survey. Last place in that survey went to Pocatello, Idaho, which has since redesigned.

Nylon or polyester in District of Columbia

Nylon is appropriate for the District's moderate wind and humid summers. Polyester for any flagpole flying around the clock where longevity outranks flutter.

At sixty square feet this is a commercial flag, and on the exposed sites above the choice of flag material is the difference between one season and three.

This listing is the nylon. It is the right choice for the sheltered and moderate wind sites named above, on any house bracket, and anywhere the flag comes down in storms. Two things decide that. Nylon is light, so it flies on the breeze most yards actually get instead of hanging limp, and it dries fast, which is what fights mildew in a humid climate. What it gives up is ultraviolet life: nylon’s amide bonds absorb ultraviolet and break, so under hard sun it loses strength and color faster than polyester, and it loses roughly a tenth of its strength while it is wet. If your site is one of the exposed ones above, look at the polyester version of this flag instead.

One more thing that decides it, and it is the part people only learn after buying twice: a nylon flag flies on days a polyester flag will not. If the flag matters to you on a still morning, on a holiday, at a funeral, at a ceremony, that is an argument for this one even on a site where the polyester would last longer. A flag that hangs is not doing its job either.

The working benchmark most institutions use comes from the American Legion, which reports that the United States government expects a flag flown daily from sunrise to sunset to last about ninety days, and one flown around the clock about a quarter of that. Retailer experience runs three to six months for nylon and four to eight for polyester flown daily, and one to three years for a flag flown only on occasions. Those are working figures, not a warranty, and exposure moves them a long way in either direction.

How the 6x10 Feet is built

This is the size where the stitching goes to six rows on the fly end rather than four. Sixty square feet generates far more force at the tip than a house flag ever will, and four rows is no longer enough.

The arithmetic behind that: 60 square feet of nylon at roughly two ounces a square yard. In a thirty mile an hour wind the fly end of a flag this size travels faster than the wind itself, because the wave running out to the tip accelerates as it goes. That is why the tip wears out first and why the stitching count at that end is the number worth reading on any listing.

Two people to fold properly, and a clear patch of ground or a clean surface. Sixty square feet does not fold on a tailgate.

Lock stitching means each stitch is knotted into the next, so a broken thread stops where it broke rather than unzipping the seam. 6 rows does not mean 6 times the strength; it means 5 backups. The heading is two inches of heavy duty white, reinforced, with two solid brass grommets and tooth washers. At this size the heading is the part under the most sustained strain.

The flag material is commercial grade nylon. It is light enough to fly in a gentle breeze, it sheds water rather than holding it, and it dries fast, which matters because a flag that stays wet stays heavy and works its seams harder. The ink is UV resistant and field tested; sun is what takes a flag’s color, and the ink decides how long it holds.

A design that reproduces cleanly

Two colors, three stars and two bars. It is one of the simplest designs in the country to reproduce and one of the most durable, and it ranked first of all American city flags in the 2004 vexillological survey at 9.17 out of 10.

For what it is worth, the North American Vexillological Association surveyed 72 state, provincial and territorial flags in 2001 and rated them from zero to ten. The District of Columbia flag placed 8, at 7.48 out of 10.

Will it fit my flagpole?

It suits an in-ground flagpole of thirty to forty feet.

Questions about the 6x10 Feet

What size flagpole for a 6x10 foot flag? Thirty to forty feet. At this size the flag is commercial and the flagpole has to be an in-ground pole with a truck and halyard.

Why does the 6x10 foot flag have grommets when the 8x12 foot flag has a rope? Sixty square feet is the most two brass grommets can be asked to carry. Above this the load is spread along a rope sewn the length of the heading.

Does a 6x10 foot flag need a heavier flagpole? A sixty square foot flag in a gust loads a flagpole hard. If the pole was sold for a 4x6 foot or 5x8 foot flag, check its rating before stepping up.

The last size on grommets

Everything above this is finished with a rope sewn the full length of the heading rather than two grommets, because two points can no longer carry the load. The 6x10 foot flag sits right at that boundary, which is why it runs six rows of stitching and a two inch heading while still using grommets.

Specifications

• Size: 6x10 Feet
• Area: 60 square feet
• Material: 100 percent nylon
• Fly end: 6 rows of lock stitching
• Heading: heavy duty white, reinforced, 2 inch
• Finish: Brass Grommets
• Ink: UV resistant, field tested
• Made in the United States by FORTISVEX

Which size do I need?

The rule behind both tables below is that a flag’s length should run about a quarter to a third of the flagpole’s height. Where two sizes both fit, the smaller one flies more often and lasts longer, and the larger one reads from further away.

If you know your flagpole height, start here.

• 6 Feet house bracket: 2x3 Feet or 3x5 Feet
• 15 to 20 Feet flagpole: 3x5 Feet or 4x6 Feet
• 20 to 25 Feet flagpole: 4x6 Feet or 5x8 Feet
• 25 to 35 Feet flagpole: 5x8 Feet or 6x10 Feet
• 35 to 45 Feet flagpole: 6x10 Feet or 8x12 Feet
• 45 to 60 Feet flagpole: 8x12 Feet or 10x15 Feet
• 60 to 80 Feet flagpole: 10x15 Feet or 12x18 Feet
• 80 to 100 Feet flagpole: 12x18 Feet or 15x25 Feet
• 100 to 120 Feet flagpole: 15x25 Feet or 20x30 Feet
• 120 to 150 Feet flagpole: 20x30 Feet or 20x38 Feet
• 150 to 200 Feet flagpole: 20x38 Feet or 30x50 Feet
• 200 to 240 Feet flagpole: 30x50 Feet or 30x60 Feet
• 240 Feet and above: 30x60 Feet or 50x80 Feet, engineered to the flagpole

If you know your flag size, start here.

• 2x3 Feet: 4 to 8 Feet bracket or garden flagpole
• 3x5 Feet: 6 Feet bracket, or 15 to 20 Feet in-ground flagpole
• 4x6 Feet: 18 to 25 Feet in-ground flagpole
• 5x8 Feet: 25 to 35 Feet flagpole
• 6x10 Feet: 30 to 40 Feet flagpole
• 8x12 Feet: 40 to 50 Feet flagpole
• 10x15 Feet: 50 to 60 Feet flagpole
• 12x18 Feet: 60 to 80 Feet flagpole
• 15x25 Feet: 80 to 100 Feet flagpole
• 20x30 Feet: 100 to 120 Feet flagpole
• 20x38 Feet: 120 to 150 Feet flagpole. This is the garrison size under Executive Order 10834, at a one to one point nine ratio rather than the two to three of the commercial sizes, and it is the size flown at the White House and the Capitol
• 30x50 Feet: 150 to 200 Feet flagpole
• 30x60 Feet: 200 to 240 Feet flagpole. This is the largest standard commercial size
• 50x80 Feet: 240 Feet and above, engineered to the flagpole

The quarter to a third rule holds all the way up, but above about a hundred feet the flag and the flagpole stop being two purchases and become one engineered system: the truck, the halyard, the foundation and the wind load all have to be specified together, and a flag bought without checking the flagpole rating damages the flagpole first. Several famous installations deliberately fly longer than the rule, which is a choice made with an engineer rather than from a chart.

We carry the full range whether or not every size appears on this website. If the size you need is not listed, we can still supply it.

About the back of the flag

A printed flag reads correctly from the front and reversed from the back. That is normal and it is true of almost every flag flown in the country. A flag that reads correctly from both sides is a double sided flag, built as two flags sewn together with a liner between them, and it costs roughly twice as much and weighs roughly twice as much. Unless the statute for a particular state requires it, single sided is the standard and the right choice.

Flying it with the United States flag

The United States Flag Code, Title 4, Section 7, governs this. No other flag goes above the United States flag, or to its right when on the same level, which is the viewer’s left. On two flagpoles of the same height the United States flag takes the viewer’s left and both flags should be the same size. If the flagpoles differ in height, the United States flag goes on the taller one. On a single flagpole carrying two flags the United States flag goes at the top. The Flag Code is advisory for civilians and carries no penalty, but it is the standard every institution follows.

Buy two and they both last longer

Fly one for a month, then swap. Two flags rotated monthly will outlast three flags flown to destruction, because the fabric recovers when it rests and the fly end stops taking the same abuse in the same place. Take it down in severe weather; a flag left up through a real windstorm can take more damage in one night than in six normal months. And watch the fly end rather than the middle, because a few minutes with a needle when the fraying starts buys another season.

For cities, counties, schools and agencies

We supply state flags to municipalities, school districts, fire and police departments, courthouses and state agencies. Tax exempt accounts are handled through the tax exempt page. For quantities, replacement schedules or sizes not listed, use the contact page.

Why buy it from us

We are a small American company and we stock what we sell. Every flag here is made in the United States, printed in UV resistant ink, and finished to the construction described above rather than to a price point. We would rather sell you one flag that lasts than three that do not. Free shipping on orders over twenty five dollars.