A 9/11 Memorial 100 Feet in the Air

Drivers on Highway 55 between Lexington Avenue and Lone Oak Road couldn't help but notice the two large American flags and giant photograph suspended from cranes in the parking lot of Phillippi Equipment Company.

According to a company spokesman, owner Tony Phillippi has mounted a similar display in one fashion or another every year since 2002.

This year, two American flags hung from 100-foot booms attached to a 100-ton and a 125-ton crane, and a 12-by-18-foot photograph of a soldier carrying a wounded child was suspended between them from a 225-ton crane.

The company rents construction equipment. 

In support of the company's efforts, the Eagan Police and Fire Departments each parked one of their vehicles beneath the flags. 

Former Eagan police chief and mayor Pat Geagan, who himself served in the Air Force and has had four of his five children in the military, stopped by to view the display. Geagan said he thought it was really well-done and thoughtful and served as a real testament to the business community.

Professional photographer Amy Rondeau of Hastings had driven by earlier in the week and made it a point to come back to take pictures. "I think it's awesome," she said. "I'm glad they did it. I think it's important to commemorate this." 

Rondeau said she drove around the Twin Cities looking for other Sept. 11 memorial displays and, apart from one man waving flags from a bridge over the freeway, this was the only one she found.

The Peterson family of Eagan dropped by after a dinner out because their son, Austin, told them they had to see it. They alternately described the display as "moving," "touching" and "amazing."

The company plans to remove everything sometime on Sept. 12.