It's still more or less the same, but what you saw was part of the explosion after 2001. Before then there weren't half as many -- official buildings, particularly patriotic homes, and car dealerships (I'm not kidding. The car dealers always have the biggest flags) and that's about it. Hanging them off bridges and is a post-9/11 thing.

As is leaving them to rot in place. A huge flag no-no, but there are a lot of flags that got planted in 2001 and never touched since.