海角大神

Police are searching for four or five people they believe scaled to the top of the Brooklyn聽Bridge's聽two towers in the dead of night, disabled lights illuminating two large American聽flags, and then replaced the聽flags聽with bleached-white ones.

The security breach at one of the city's most secured landmarks didn't appear to be the work of terrorists or even a political statement, said the police department's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism and intelligence, but was likely done by people familiar with climbing or bridgework who may even have scaled the bridge聽before.

"We don't take these things lightly, or as a joke, or as art or within the realm of speech," deputy commissioner John Miller said. "These are issues of trespass 鈥� they put themselves in danger, they put others in danger 鈥� and that's why we investigate it."

Video footage of the security breach shows the unidentified people walking on the聽bridge's聽footpath at about 3:10 a.m., and 20 minutes later the light on the聽bridge's聽Brooklyn聽tower flickers and goes dark, Miller said. The same thing happens about 12 minutes later on the Manhattan tower, he said.

Locked gates midway up the main cables leading to the tops of the towers didn't appear to have been tampered with, suggesting the climbers scaled them to reach the top, Miller said.

Two police cars sit at either end of the聽bridge, which spans the East River connecting lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, and are fed real-time security camera footage trained on areas affecting the structural integrity of the聽bridge, Miller said, but those cameras didn't capture the聽flag聽bandits.

At about 5:30 a.m., construction workers noticed the聽white聽flags, apparently American聽flags聽about 20 feet by 11 feet (6 meters by 3.3 meters) and perhaps commercial grade, with faded stars and stripes, police said. Police removed the聽white聽flags聽just before noon.

The聽flags聽fly from above the pillars year-round and are replaced by transportation workers when they become frayed about every two months, police said. They are lit from the bottom by a lamp at the base of each tower at night 鈥� lights that were covered by aluminum foil cooking sheets secured with zip ties, Miller said.

More than 120,000 vehicles, 4,000 pedestrians and 3,100 bicyclists cross the聽Brooklyn聽Bridge聽every day, said the city's Department of Transportation, which maintains it.

Tourist Johan Lund, from Stockholm, Sweden, crossed the聽bridge聽Tuesday and did a double take when he noticed the聽white聽flags聽flapping in the wind.

"Wasn't there an American聽flag聽there yesterday?" he said to himself.

High-profile breaches have been made before.

Thieves swiped two American flags from the span two years ago, but they were never busted, according to a Department of Transportation worker tasked with replacing the flags on the bridge Tuesday.

鈥淭hey went up and robbed the flags from both ends in 2012,鈥� Nick Krevatas, 49, a bridge painter, told The Post.

The case had been reported to cops, said Krevatas, who said he replaced those flags, too. Local media never picked up the story.

In April, a street artist who filmed his effort scaling the Ed Koch-Queensboro聽Bridge聽as part of an art installation was arrested on criminal trespass and other charges. And in March, four skydiving enthusiasts were charged with reckless endangerment for sneaking into 1 World Trade Center, the nation's tallest building, months earlier and filming their jump from atop it.

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