Eternal Light Flagstaff, War memorial in Madison Square Park, Manhattan, US

The Eternal Light Flagstaff is a war memorial in Madison Square Park in Manhattan that rises 125 feet (38 meters) above the park with a luminous star at its summit. A pink granite pedestal decorated with bronze ornaments forms its base and is surrounded by paved pathways.

The memorial was commissioned by department store magnate Rodman Wanamaker at a cost of $25,000, designed by architect Thomas Hastings of Carrère and Hastings with a sculpture by Paul Wayland Bartlett, and dedicated on Armistice Day, November 11, 1923; it was completed in 1924. Its 125-foot Oregon pine flagstaff was replaced with a metal one in 1976. In 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh laid a memorial wreath here during a parade, and the crowd broke the barriers, forcing police to form a human chain.

The pedestal's bronze cap carries garlands and rams' heads, and its granite face lists the battle sites where American troops fought, above the words "An Eternal Light, an inspiration and a Promise of Enduring Peace." The star was first lit on November 11, 1923, the date carved into the stone as November XI MCMXXIII.

The flagstaff rises from an ornamental pedestal of Milford pink granite topped by a bronze cap with garlands and rams' heads; the pedestal is inscribed with the sites of battles and a tribute to soldiers, sailors and marines who died in the war. Look for the inscription recording that the star was lighted November XI MCMXXIII.

The star's lamps are wired on separate circuits: if one fails, another takes over, so the memorial light is meant to burn at all times. The flagstaff itself is not original — the Oregon pine pole of 1923 was replaced by a metal one in 1976.