Why is it called a fly?

Funny question that was asked by my girl friends 7 year old the other day. Why is a zipper called a fly?

I decided to google it and found the following;

It's not the zipper that's the fly... it's the fold of cloth that conceals it. Fly is a very old word meaning something attached on one side, like a flag, or a tent flap, or the flap on a garment that conceals a fastener. It's related, at the root, to the sense of flying, like a flag.

This is why my girlfriend Kathy calls me Mr. Google. I love finding tidbits like this. Some past examples include finding out who designed the first electric sewing machine or the name of the man who invented the water closet also known as a toilet.

Anyway, it's been said that knowledge is power. That may be true in some way but with regard to my googling obsession it's more of a desire to discover the most useless trivia I can pretty much just for the fun of it.

Happy New Years.

Tim