Firefighters in Anoka County mark 9/11 with annual flag display

The chorus of horns punching through the wind along Highway 10 in Anoka County, Minnesota, on Friday was like music to Adam Gordon's ears.

"I can feel it. I feel it in here," he said with a smile as he put his hand on his chest. 

Gordon, a fire inspector and firefighter, was grateful. The horns were the sound of support and respect for the sacrifices made 25 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001.

"We lost 343 firefighters that day. That number will stick with me for the rest of my life," Gordon said. "I think about them, their families, their kids who are now firefighters in New York City."

Gordon represented the Ramsey Fire Department underneath its memorial at the Armstrong Boulevard overpass. A fire truck had its ladder extended with a large American flag hanging from the end.

The tradition started 20 years ago a few miles down the highway at the Main Street overpass in Coon Rapids courtesy of Daniel Hanson.

"I am out here every year from sunrise to sunset," Hanson said. "I got the impression back in 2006 people were already starting to forget what happened to our country, and that's the reason I started this."

At first, it was just dedicated volunteers like himself standing proudly on the overpass, most of them Hanson's coworkers. They held flags and draped a banner over the railing reminding drivers to never forget the infamous day.

The Coon Rapids Fire Department soon joined his group on the overpass. This year, a massive flag was strung up between fire trucks from Coon Rapids and Andover, Minnesota.

Hanson said their goal is to be a patriotic reminder of why this date holds such heavy importance in American history, especially for those who weren't alive to witness it.

"I want to continue doing this because I want (children) to be able to say, 'Why are they on the bridge?' And then their parents say, 'Because this is what happened. And these people don't want any of us to forget what happened on Sept. 11,'" Hanson said.

The wind was howling Friday, nearly to the point that it might have been too dangerous for fire trucks to keep their ladders extended into the air. Hanson had weathered worse conditions in previous years thanks to Mother Nature and his own injuries. 

"I broke my femur [in] half in 2008. And so, I was up here in the rain in a wheelchair," he said.

Hanson is a native Minnesotan, but Gordon grew up in central New York. He said his father, uncle and a cousin were all firefighters. After moving to Minnesota in the late 90s, Gordon eventually became a firefighter in Ramsey in 2002, inspired by the events that happened a year earlier.

"When 9/11 happened, that was the big push. It's time," Gordon said. "I had family in the [Twin] Towers. They got out thankfully, but I knew some people that did perish in the fire service out there."

Like Hanson, he has stood along Highway 10 on Sept. 11 for several years. Both were expected to head home when the sun set. Both will return to their respective spots when the sun rises one year from now.

"I'll be out here until the day I can't be," said Hanson.