Superstitions are fascinating and this rare superstition involves the American flag and steelworkers.
Steel Workers Crown Skyscraper Frames With “Old Glory” to Prevent Death
There is a superstition among structural steel workers that when the highest pinnacle of a building is reached that unless the American flag is raised there that day, one or more men will be killed on the job before the building is complete. For a contractor to refuse to crown the spider-like steel structure of the framework of his building with Old Glory is a serious breach of etiquette of steelworkers, and is liable to cause a “walkout on his job.”
The picture above shows the ceremony of “Crowning a Building with Old Glory.” Little Ruth Bergstrom scaled to the top of the dome of the Transportation building of the Panama World’s Fair in San Francisco upon its completion and planted the American flag while the workmen cheered. In the background can be seen some of the other semi-completed buildings of the fair.
Source: The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 13 April 1914.
