TAMPA — Men driving pickups honked and flashed a thumbs-up sign. One yelled "Hell, yeah!" Another pumped his fist in the air.
Others, though, weren't nearly as pleased at the sight of a Confederate flag the size of a semitrailer truck flying Tuesday high above the junction of Interstates 75 and 4.
"It's huge and it's obnoxious," said Curtis Stokes, president of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP.
Organizers building a Civil War monument at the site said last week they hoped to fly the Confederate flag sometime next year. But they raised it shortly after sunrise Tuesday to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederate States of America.
Meanwhile, workers poured concrete and built a block wall around the site.
"I love it. It's gorgeous," said Tanya Heard, 27, who lives nearby and pulled over to look up at the flag, along U.S. 92 in the Eureka Springs neighborhood just west of I-75.
The flag, which cost $800, was lowered at sundown and organizers said it won't go up again until the site is officially dedicated.
Stokes and Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White also drove by Tuesday afternoon.
"I just wish there was something from the county perspective that we could do," White said. "But we can't censor free speech."
The county exempted flags from its sign regulations in 2004. However, County Commissioner Rose Ferlita said she plans to bring the flag issue up for discussion during a board meeting today.
Tampa resident Marion Lambert, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, paid $7,000 for the 0.19-acre site in January 2004. In February 2005, Lambert met with six planners from Hillsborough's Planning and Growth Management Department, who advised him how to prepare an application for a variance to build a monument.
In April 2005, county records show, a land use hearing officer approved Lambert's request for a lighted park with monuments and a flagpole "to commemorate American veterans."
But no one in county government asked Lambert which veterans he planned to honor, or how.
"They never asked the question, 'Well, what flag you going to put up?' " Lambert said. "I never lied to them."
While the flag's outline was visible from more than a mile away at some points, it was the view from the southbound lanes of I-75 that took drivers' breath away.
It was suddenly, jarringly there as drivers rounded a bend in the road and crested the I-4 overpass, and just as they came upon the exit sign that says "Martin Luther King Blvd. 1 mile."
The flag was national news this week on CNN and Fox News. A report posted Friday on the Times' Web site, tampabay.com, drew more than 1,200 reader comments.
While many passers-by expressed support for the flag Tuesday, Maxine Meyer, who owns a boat business next to the park, was having a "no parking" sign put in her parking lot.
She worries that visitors to the monument, which is adjacent to her property, will cause traffic jams and accidents.
"If we were going to put a flag up there, it'd be an American flag," Meyer said.
Jan Wesner can be reached at jwesner@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2439. Andrew Meacham can be reached at ameacham@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2431.
[Last modified: Jun 10, 2008 01:40 PM]
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