Advertisement

4,000 pounds of explosives implode Atlanta's Georgia Dome

By Sara Shayanian

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Atlanta lost a part of its skyline on Monday as the Georgia Dome -- a 25-year-old stadium that hosted all Atlanta Falcons home football games and several Super Bowls -- was imploded.

More than 4,000 pounds of explosives and six miles of wiring took down the dome that used to seat 71,000 fans.

Advertisement

The implosion went off almost without a hitch. Two sections of walls were left standing after the blast.

"We have to investigate whether the charges [in those sections] went off," Rick Cuppetilli, an executive for the demolition company, said. "If the charges went off, it's not going to take much at all [to knock the walls down]."

Cuppetilli said the walls still standing will be knocked over.

Although the stadium was just 25 years old, thousands gathered Monday morning to watch the semi-young stadium go down.

"We saw the different detonation points go off, heard the blasts and saw the structure come down," Lauren Stewart, one of the country's leading blast experts, said. "That's how it's supposed to go, and it looks like it went pretty much as planned."

Advertisement

Opened in 1992, the Georgia Dome was for a time the largest covered stadium in the world -- and hosted a number of events, including two Super Bowls, numerous other sporting events and concerts and the 1996 Summer Olympics.

The Atlanta Falcons plan to move into the new $1.6 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium next season.

Latest Headlines