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# Bristol, Virginia and Tennessee (U.S.)

## Independent City

Last modified: 2026-04-25 by rick wyatt
Keywords: bristol | tennessee | virginia |
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image located by David Sigley, 4 March 2026

- Description of the flag
- The seal
- Previous flag

See also:

- Bristol, Tennessee
- County and Municipal flags of Virginia
- Virginia
- State of Tennessee
- United States of America

## Description of the flag

Bristol adopted a new city flag in early 2024 after first presenting proposal replacements for their previous flag on January 24, 2024 on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CityofBristolVA/posts/pfbid02T3ZDMHpqHBbP7GfiZr8dp2WAnPB7LBQhcCZiP1gfmwadEVBbJKtN8kGDeab4LNjCl
The second option would become the new city flag, as seen here in this photo inside council chamber: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122120131832211382&set=a.122117400848211382
The flag shows a field of purple with an off-white hoist side bar. The side and field are separated by a thing golden stripe, with the city seal placed in the center of the line. On the right of seal are four golden lines that extend to the fly end, which reminds that of guitar strings, as Bristol is known for their musical heritage, like the 1927 Bristol Sessions, which was some of the first recordings of Country Music and prominent early country music singers like the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers made their names during the sessions.
David Sigley, 4 March 2026

## The seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 1 February 2020

Source: https://www.homesnacks.net/images/va/bristol-va-2.gif
Paul Bassinson, 1 February 2020

## Previous flag

image by Eugene Ipavec, 10 March 2009

W. A. Dennison, Jr. City Manager of the City of Bristol, Virginia, provide me with an image of the flag and a story about it.
"Bristol Virginia/Tennessee Flag
Adopted March 3, 2006
A contest was prepared by the Sesquicentennial Committee in 2005 in preparation for Bristol's upcoming anniversary. This "Design A Bristol Flag" contest resulted in 58 very creative entries from the Bristol area and from as far as Florida. Members of the Bristol Sesquicentennial Committee served as judges, then the winning entry was chosen by the Bristol Tennessee & Bristol Virginia City Councils. For the Opening Ceremonies on March 4th, 2006 it was announced that Debra Wolfe of Bristol Tennessee made the winning entry. Her artwork incorporated the seals of both cities with a field in blue and red. This simple design was chosen due to the use of both cities current identifying logos and ease of recognition at a distance.
The red, white, and blue flag is made up of the royal blue of the Virginia flag and the deep red of the Tennessee flag. On the upper left section, is the city seal of Bristol, Virginia with our communities most recognizable symbol, the Great Sign. The seal of Bristol, TN is on the lower right section, with the date the city was founded. Neither seal alone tells the whole story of our community. Each seal crosses from one state to the other, symbolizing the way our citizens easily move about, living in one state and working in the other or going to school in one state and church in the other. Last, and most important, is the white bar representing the state line, the state line running through it all. This line does not separate us, rather, it has become the seam that stitches together the two states to form a single community - "Bristol."
As you can read and see, the City of Bristol VA and the City of Bristol TN have the same flag.
Valentin Poposki, 10 March 2009