Demolition

This is an image from the film Koyaanisqatsi

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Demolition VerónicaArgentian2
Muscatine High Bridge, Mississippi River
Shown is the demolition of the 142-ton center span in the Muscatine High Bridge, which connected Muscatine, Iowa and Illinois City, IL from May 8, 1891 until April 5, 1973. Built at a cost of US$150,000 (approximately US$3.9 million in today's money), it had been replaced by the new Norbert F. Beckey bridge on December 2, 1972, and so at 9:20am on April 5, the final demolition commenced. The center span was dropped using some 95 RDX shaped charges by Townson, Maryland-based Controlled Demolitions Inc. Together, the charges sliced the span into six separate sections as it fell towards the Mississippi, and the first 28-ton section was removed from the river within 30 minutes of the blast. The remaining spans were demolished over the following week or so. Footage of the demolition was filmed from the river by then-vice president of CDI, Mark Loizeaux, but it isn't immediately clear if this footage is what appears in Koyaanisqatsi. Although the bulk of the bridge no longer exists, one bridge pier still remains behind the municipal boat harbor at Muscatine's Riverside Park. A footnote: It wasn't the first time the High Bridge fell. It suffered two collapses in its 82-year lifespan. The first happened just eight years after its construction, when several men and horses fell from the bridge into the Mississippi River below. The second collapse came on June 1, 1956 after 22-year old Duane Chelf attempted to outrun a police officer in his Ford convertible, and crashed his vehicle into one of the bridge piers. An hour later, a span collapsed on the Illinois side, dumping a semi-trailer into the river, and leaving a Coca Cola truck teetering on the edge.
gweilo8888Knoxville, TN

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