TROY -- After 50 years of marches through the city, Troy's once famous Flag Day Parade is no more.

Organizers said dwindling crowds of spectators and rising costs to pay for out-of-town marching bands led to the decision to end the half-century salute to Flag Day. It ends a celebration that started as a rebuttal to anti-war protests during the Vietnam War era and grew into the largest Flag Day parade in the nation.

"After careful consideration and review, the committee decided the enormous yearlong effort to fundraise, plan and organize thousands of marchers, groups, and musical acts – along with the deployment of several city departments – was no longer realistic given the shrinking number of spectators at the parade year after year," Troy Flag Day Committee said in a statement released Friday.

The committee also said, "the rapid loss of World War II, Korean, and Vietnam veterans passing away over the past decade as one of the several contributing factors for the decline in attendance and participation in the annual parade."

The committee said a permanent flag pole and monument near the end of the parade route on Fourth Street in downtown Troy will be erected. The committee said it is planning the monument with the city and Franklin Plaza Group

The Flag Day Parade follows the Uncle Sam Parade into the city's history books. At its most popular, the Flag Day Parade drew crowds of 50,000.

Each June, marchers paraded up Fourth Street from South Troy to Federal Street in downtown. Michael Fusco, president of Franklin Hospitality which operates Troy's historic Franklin Plaza known for its pink marble ballroom and Brazilian mahogany boardroom, contacted people and raised $41,000 to allow the half-century mark to be reached by the parade.

For the 2017 Flag Day Parade, 59 groups or units marched. The parade began, according to the Troy Flag Day Parade Committee history, "In 1967 Jim Pasinella, a Postal Worker, working out of the Troy Post Office became upset that a group of people were burning the American Flag in protest in the middle of the street in Troy. That week, Jim protested the protest and walked down the street with friends carrying the American Flag."

Pasinella was accompanied by members of the Italian Community Center, the Polish American Club, the Emerald Athletic Club, and the Troy Elks Club during that initial march.