| | SEATTLE -- The Kingdome, which went from engineering marvel
to anachronistic eyesore in just 24 years, was demolished in a
controlled implosion Sunday to make room for a new, more expensive
stadium.
|  | | The Kingdome begins to fall following the detonation of explosives Sunday in Seattle. |
Thousands of spectators cheered from office towers and hillsides
around the city as a series of blasts crumbled the massive concrete
structure -- once home to the Mariners and Seahawks -- into a mound
of rubble and dust.
"It sent chills down your spine. Forget TV, you had to be here
to see it," said John Geoffrey of Amazon.com, whose headquarters
overlooks the site.
Sparks from a 21.6-mile web of detonation cord flickered over
the ribbed surface of the dome, followed by 5,800 gelatin dynamite
charge explosions. The 25,000-ton roof collapsed into a billowing
dust cloud in less than 20 seconds in rare March sunshine.
"It just happened so fast. Everyone started clapping. They were
just gasping and yelling and clapping," said Susan Clark, one of
about 130 people who watched the implosion at a fundraiser from
the 11th floor of the nearby Smith Tower.
"The little flashes of light going down between each section
(of the roof) like lightning bolts -- that was pretty exciting,"
said Cheryl Winchester, 33.
The Kingdome -- dubbed the mushroom, the concrete cupcake and
other less charitable names over the years -- was completed in 1976
at a cost of $67 million. The Seahawks made their debut in the
Kingdome that year, and the Mariners arrived a year later.
The dome was a necessity in a city where rain is part of civic
life. But fans complained that the concrete stadium was too small
for football and not intimate enough for baseball.
What's more, it leaked. And in 1994, four 15-pound ceiling tiles
crashed into the stands just hours before a Mariners' game.
Ken Griffey Jr. found one advantage to the stadium -- it was a
home run hitter's paradise where he once hit 56 homers in a season.
And the concrete dome amplified the volume inside, earning
screaming Seahawks fans the honorary title of 12th player.
The Mariners abandoned the Kingdome last season and moved to
$517 million Safeco Field, a state-of-the-art outdoor stadium
across the street.
The Seahawks will share the University of Washington's Husky
Stadium until their new home is finished -- built on the site of the
Kingdome -- in August 2002.
The old Kingdome won't disappear from Seattle entirely. One
third of the rubble produced by Sunday's implosion is slated for
use in the Seahawks new $430 million stadium.
"It's a shame. It was good-looking building," said Steve
Albert, 46, of Seattle, who watched from Pike Place Market. "It
didn't seem that old as buildings went. It's a waste."
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ALSO SEE
Kingdome implosion video
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