The Stadium That Refused to Crumble After Failed Implosion Finally Fell

Some architectural monuments have stood the test of time, think the Roman Colosseum. Though in a world that is constantly reinventing itself this idea of architecture generally doesn't exist anymore. But it seems one building didn’t get that memo. When workers tried to implode the Pontiac Silverdome, in Detroit, it just didn’t want to budge. Despite laying a ring of explosives around the base of the building, it was still standing after detonation. Mayor of the city Deirdre Waterman released a statement saying: "Although we're waiting for a final assessment from the Adamo Group, we have been informed by them that eight shape charges didn't go off on the main columns."

A day later the mighty stadium was finally brought to its knees when a successful detonation setup managed to implode the building causing it to collapse.

The stadium was first opened in 1975 in the suburb of Pontiac, Detroit. The stadium featured an unusual roof design. The building had a fiberglass fabric roof that was held up with air pressure. The white fabric roof tended to look silver in bright sunlight and thus gave the stadium its nickname, the ‘silverdome’. The stadium operated from the mid-seventies until the mid-2000’s when it was sold by the city. Its groundbreaking roof was destroyed in a storm in 2013. The stadium was home to the Detroit Lions of the NFL from 1975 until 2001. But one of its largest crowd attendances came when Pope John Paul II performed mass there in September 1987 with more than 90, 000 people attending.

Via: Associated Press