Three Rivers Imploded in Seconds
P I T T S B U R G H, Feb. 12 -- A cloud of dust went up, and Three RiversStadium came down.
Sunday saw the end of one of the nation's best-known stadiums —home of one of football's most famous plays and a Pittsburgh prosports resurgence in the 1970s.
Several thousand people lined Pittsburgh rivers to cheer theimplosion of the 30-year-old home of the Steelers and Pirates, somecamping out as early as 1 a.m. Sunday to get the best view.
The stadium's western wall tumbled inward and the rest of thestructure collapsed into a cloud of dust. The $5.1 millionimplosion lasted about 19 seconds.
"This is the greatest day of my life," said 16-year-old JosephKing, who won a raffle to earn the right to push a plunger to startthe demolition. "I heard the bangs, and it seemed like foreverbefore it went down."
The blast was followed by a round of fireworks at about 8 a.m.
Bittersweet Day
Experts loaded 4,800 pounds of dynamite into the mammothcircular stadium last week to clear the way for separate baseballand football stadiums rising nearby. PNC Park opens with thePirates and Mets in an exhibition game March 31, and the unnamedSteelers stadium opens this fall.
Pittsburgh television stations rigged six cameras inside thestadium that captured most of the action before the cables were cutby falling concrete. The cameras were rescued — unharmed — whendemolition crews combed the debris shortly after the blast.
"To be honest, this is a very bittersweet day for me," MayorTom Murphy said. "I remember being here at the last baseball gameof the '95 season when we weren't sure that we were even going tohave a team anymore. I'm very proud. This shows that Pittsburgh ismoving forward."
Dynamite severed the 12 joints that held the stadium together,and it fell in a neat ring, except for metal rigging that stuckskyward. Crews went to work immediately Sunday hauling away about75 truckloads of concrete and steel.
Former Manager Welcomes New Ballpark
Popular Reads
ABC News Live