
The Kingdome Comes Down...
March 2000
Wednesday,
March 1 - 3:30 p.m. - Today they are continuing work right in the
center. In the big version of this photo you can see their
spraying water up while they are pushing debris over the side. You
can really see through the dome now. Just a minute ago I was
looking and saw movement inside the dome only to realize I was watching
a train go by and seeing it through the dome, not in it!
Some people read last night's news report about our being able to
stay here differently than I did. They think it said that those of
us on Occidental (the street that runs between here and the dome) will
be evacuated. The rest of the grid area (1,000 feet around the
dome) will only be requested to leave. Guess we'll learn more on
Monday. |
Thursday,
March 2 - 4:30 p.m. - Today brings a big hole right in the middle of
the picture - they cut the supporting bar to make this big hole.
It's kind of cool.
Otherwise the news is kind of slim. So, I'll just mention that
tomorrow is the first Mariner game of the season! Ok, so it's a
Spring Training game but it's going to be broadcast and I'm going to
have my radio ear buds in and ready to go! |
Friday,
March 3 - 4:30 p.m. - My day started with a call from Jeff Hodson of
the Seattle Times to tell me that the implosion date has been set.
Sunday, March 26. This is excellent. My 51st birthday is
March 28 so I'm going to count this as a real birthday blast!!
Jeff also told me about the Kingdome - Dome to Dust
section of the Times' website.
Yesterday I got a note from Yves Côté asking me if I was involved
with Microsoft's filming of the implosion in 3D. I had no idea
what he was talking about but this morning's Post-Intelligencer
newspaper cleared up that mystery. Check
this out! Get your 3D glasses ready!
And, finally, Brian Sandefur was asking about the rubble they are
supposed to be piling up inside the dome to cushion the roof coming
down. If you look inside the hole they made yesterday (where the
lights are shining through) you can almost see the pile. I can see
it but can't get a good photo of it. |
Saturday,
March 4 - 12:15 p.m. - Very quite at the dome today. There are
a few workers around but they have yet to turn on their loud toys.
But the news isn't quiet. Yesterday's date announcement gave all
our news outlets a reason to kick up a bunch of Kingdome stories.
I suspect this is only the beginning. But, one TV station last
night had a long (way long) story on the dangers of the dust that the
implosion will cause. They interviewed people on the street who
pretty much said that the dust would be a big problem for them. I
guess no one has thought about maybe staying inside and closing the
doors and windows???? |
Sunday,
March 5 - 9 a.m. - Yesterday afternoon the worked picked up and the
pounding and chewing went on all afternoon. This morning there are
a small number of workers working and no noise yet. Also yesterday
afternoon they were moving some of the big cranes around. It was
kind of cool. I watched one and it looked like a dinosaur slowly
moving around poking its nose into the various sides of the wall,
grinding away and then moving on. |
Monday,
March 6 - 4:30 p.m. - Jason Abbey wrote that he read somewhere that
they aren't going to yank out what is left of the scoreboard but just
let it go with the implosion... Interesting. Tonight's our
big meeting to get details. I'll have them here this time
tomorrow!
Meanwhile, you've got to check this out... Dan Sherbeck
has added time lapse to his website!!! It is too cool.
You'll need a movie player - he provides a link to a website where you
can download it for free. Then click on a day - after it downloads
(which takes a while) it plays a movie of a day (12 hours - with frames
10 minutes apart) in the life of the Kingdome.
Same day, 9 p.m. - I was going to wait until tomorrow but I'm
afraid I'll forget a detail. The meeting was really
interesting. Here are the high points:
- The mounds of dirt are for the explosives and they are
called magazines. Thomas Kent-Tobias called
that one right on the money.
- The big pile o' rocks they've been building this week is for a
berm to help shield us from the noise of the concrete crusher
they'll be using after the implosion.
- The implosion might last as long as 17 seconds. (I was in the Bay
Area earthquake in 1989 and it was 17 seconds and I can tell you
that is a looooong time.)
- They are not going to remove the scoreboard. Jason was
right. They have sliced what's left of it so it will go down with
the implosion.
- They are encouraging us to leave for the implosion. They are
having a continental breakfast at McRory's (a restaurant on the
corner just north of here). We will not be allowed in or out
after 7:30 a.m. on that day or before about 9:30 a.m. I think
I'm likely to be staying here.
- They are going to drape our terrace openings and seal our terrace
doors starting on Thursday before the implosion. This
could be a real problem as far as getting photos are concerned but
they head implosion guy said that the drape won't be tight and I can
sneak my camera through. I can also choose to do my door
taping myself and wait until Sunday morning to do it.
|
Tuesday,
March 7 - 4:30 p.m. - Today's picture features that big rock berm
and the magazines so you can really see them. The guy last night
said that the big pieces left after the implosion will be moved over
just in front of the office trailers. There they will be crushed
to bits. |
Wednesday,
March 8 - 4:30 p.m. - They have done a good bit of tidying up of the
parking lot today. Everything is stacked up and/or neatly
parked. Interesting... There is a cool link on MSNBC, they have a
little movie about the implosion and at the end of it they show a
simulation. |
Thursday,
March 9 - 4:30 p.m. - The Seattle P-I had
an interesting article on the implosion this morning. I happened
to drive by the dome today and noticed that there is no shortage of
gawkers (it's not just me!) with cameras. They were everywhere. |
Friday,
March 10 - noon - It appears to be a quiet day at the dome.
The changes this week have been subtle. Cranes moving from one
place to the other doing stuff here and there. The dramatics may
be over until the big day. I did hear last night that they will
soon start dropping orange cords over the sides that will have something
to do with the detonation. No sign of them yet. |
Saturday,
March 11 - noon - If you click on today's thumbnail you will get a
version that is REALLY big. But, I thought it was time to offer
some detail. The big change today is they have made marks on the
pillars. I've circled some in red. Obviously they are making big
plans for these spots! The marks are numbers.
Thanks to Mike Wakeman for the countdown idea. I clipped a
little code that will update it automagically at midnight (that's
Dometime, of course). |
Sunday,
March 12 - 10 a.m. - Today's picture includes the runners from the
St. Patrick's Day run. They start at the Space Needle and run to
the Kingdome every year. In the part of the parking lot just below
the picture they are all gathered now listening to Irish music and
drinking stout. Wonder what it's going to look like next year?
My neighbor, Lee Rosco, thought these pages needed a photo of me from my normal picture taking perch.
So now we've got one. Thanks, Lee! |
Monday,
March 13 - 5:15 p.m. - Today's picture is darker than usual because
1) I didn't get home from work in time for the usual earlier in the day
shot and 2) It's a gray, rainy, Seattle evening. Still no
significant change in how things look... |
Tuesday,
March 14 - 4:30 p.m. - Still raining. But, the good eye award
goes to Zack Willhoite. He spied the explosives in yesterday's
picture and I didn't even see them! I've circled some of them in
today's pictures. They are under the black cloth that is wrapped
around the posts. Several people have sent notes that the
detonator cords are under those black wraps. Dave Demsey says that
the cloth is to catch some of debris from the charges. The big
pile o' rocks is also growing. I'll get it in tomorrow's picture. |
Wednesday,
March 15 - 4 p.m. - As promised, here's a shot that shows the action
in the parking lot. Several of you have asked for inside shots
which are, of course, not my 'charter' <grin>. But, First
and Goal - the builders of the new football stadium where the Kingdome
now stands, has a nice series of close up and inside
shots - click on Construction Images... |
Thursday,
March 16 - 4:30 p.m. - Would you look at that sky!!!
Especially after the last few days. It's amazing! Well,
Kevin Tessner found these pages today and immediately snagged the good
eye award. He pointed out that even though, I only saw the
wrappings on the posts on Tuesday, my photos first started showing them
on February 20th!
Note today that the rock piles are getting bigger and bigger.
That football stadium is going to have a solid base for sure! |
Friday,
March 17 - 4:30 p.m. - We've got orange cords! Now I had to
make today's big picture (behind the thumbnail) twice as large in order
to get the detail and even then, you care barely see the orange cords
but they are there... Honest. Also, I noticed today (and you good
eyes out there probably saw this yesterday, but they have now removed
all of the wooden bracket things at the end of every roof spine.
They are nicely lined up now in the parking lot where, you guessed it,
the rock piles are getting bigger and bigger.
Oh and I'm apparently still a media darling... a guy from Sport
Illustrated called today. I probably wouldn't have considered returning
his call because it's long distance and I'm cheap. But, his voice
message said that he was a big fan of the movie Smoke which is how I got
started on all this in the first place, so he's got to be a good
guy. Alas, he had left for the day by the time I got home.
If you are reading this, John, send e-mail! |
Saturday,
March 18 - 3 p.m. - It's another gray Seattle day and there seems to
be no activity at the dome today which is very unusual. I called
the Sports Illustrated guy back and got his voice mail. Left him a
message. Ball's in his court, now. Strange to think that
this time next week, my deck will be shrouded and the blast will be only
hours away. |
Sunday,
March 19 - 1:45 p.m. - There was some interesting info
in this morning's paper. It's good detail about the blast.
Today there are workers around doing stuff but it's quiet stuff.
They are supposed to start putting the covers on my building on
Thursday. If they are like the others they are starting to put
around, they are just big black curtain-like shrouds. I was really
concerned about what I was going to do for pictures from the time they
draped me until they removed the drapes (maybe as long as
Thursday-Sunday or Monday). I asked he guy from CDI (implosion
people) when we had our meeting a couple of weeks ago and he said he
thought I would be able to poke my camera out the side. We'll
see. |
Monday,
March 20 - 4 p.m. - We got new signs today on the dome - one for
Turner Construction and one for Aman, the demolition contractor.
At first I thought it was a bit strange to put them up for the last 6
days but then I remembered all of the TV coverage there will be... Not
so strange when you consider that even ESPN is planning on live coverage
of the implosion!
And, speaking of coverage, while I never did talk to the Sports
Illustrated reporter, his 'fact checker' called today. She was
mainly interested in knowing whether or not I was a millionaire since I
once worked at Microsoft. She was clearly very disappointed when I
assured her I was not. But, she did say that the story (which I
assume is about the implosion and will include a mention of this website
- and I hope that's all, I'd rather not read about my lack of millions!)
will be in this week's issue out Thursday. She also did not
mention wanting me for the swim suit issue. Go figure!
And one more quasi-related note. My Mom asked me this weekend
how many people had been to these pages. So I put the website log
through an analyzer. I was shocked to learn that there have been
more than 12,500 unique visitors (if you come every day, you are only
counted once) since the first of March! Yikes!
Oh and Albert F. Magg wrote to tell me that the Kingdome made the New
York Times Magazine
yesterday! |
Tuesday,
March 21 - 4:15 p.m. - We have another beautiful sky today. I
noticed today, that they piles of rock inside the dome have now been
laid out in careful rows corresponding exactly to the remaining
columns. It looks like they expect each of the columns to fold
inward and land on these rocks. Pretty cool.
My office is two blocks from the dome and has several spectacular
views. Many of my co-workers had great plans to be there to watch
the implosion. Today they were told that the building owners were
not allowing anyone to be in the building Saturday night or Sunday
morning. Many disappointed people there today. I'd invite
them all over but their best view here will be on TV. |
Wednesday,
March 22 - 4:30 p.m. - Sean Watts today sent a note saying that the
implosion will be happening exactly one day shy of the 24th birthday of
the Kingdome. It was finished on March 27, 1976. Today's
photo shows (red elipse) the drapings on some of the office
trailers. These are the same kind, I suppose, they will be putting
over my terrace. However, there is one structure (not in the
picture) that they have covered in clear plastic. I doubt I'll be
that lucky. We could know as early as tomorrow. They are going to
start on our building tomorrow morning.
This morning's paper had a good article on best places to watch
from. When you get to the story, click
on 'see graphic'. |
Thursday,
March 23 - 4:30 p.m. - See the cranes in the foreground of today's
photo? Those are the cranes putting the drapes on our
building. And the great news is that they are using plastic - not
real clear but opaque enough so that at least I'll get light and maybe
be able to see a little. Looks like they will get to me tomorrow.
I haven't seen it yet, but I have word that my site was mentioned in
Sports Illustrated after all! Welcome, Sports Illustrated
readers! Word also has it that the issue also says - on the cover
- that the Red Sox are going to win the World Series... Yeah,
right. But, I digress.
For those of you outside of Seattle, Kingdome Implosion Fever is
raging here. Every media outlet is full of whatever they can
find. It's the talk of the town. Everyone I see asks me
"So are you going to stay in your place for the
implosion?" (They aren't reading this website, are
they...) YES. "Aren't you in fear for your
safety?" NO "You'll have a great view!"
No, my view will be blocked... If I had a nickel for every time I
had that conversation these days, I would be the millionaire that
Sports Illustrated wanted!
Oh, one more thing... check out Dan's
cam... his window got the black shroud. If you haven't run one
of his movies, you should. They are great. Oh, I just got a
note from Dan. He plans to put the camera through the tarp and
starting Saturday, his shot will refresh every 10-20 seconds! |
Friday,
March 24 - noon - Ok, so we have a little departure today.
Kevin, Jon and Matt came today to drape my unit. They were
great. Matt cut me a hole to take the pictures tomorrow and
Sunday. He made me promise to tape it up during and in
return, I promised to give him and Jon and Kevin international
exposure.
So you will get a dome picture tomorrow and one Sunday, before the
implosion. It isn't easy. I got this shot by having to hold
the drape in with one hand in order to even get near the hole....
I'm not going to even try to get the implosion. I'll be watching
it on TV.
Several people reported that my website was mentioned in the St.
Louis, MO Post Dispatch newspaper. Rod Mickleburgh of the
Vancouver Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada called today for an
interview. KUOW (my NPR station) called today to arrange on air
interviews for tomorrow and then on Sunday. My friend,
Sherry, says I have moved from media darling to media slut. What
in the heck does she know??!!! |
Saturday,
March 25 - 9 a.m. - The action at the Kingdome this morning is
photographers. It's pretty funny. Every time I've looked out
my hole today, there have been at least a half dozen people around
taking pictures and one or two TV vans.
On the news last night I heard (I am not making this up) that during
several Saturdays in April and May, they are going to be giving away
souvenir rubble. You can go by the North parking lot (the one you
see in my photos) and get your very own piece of Kingdome rubble.
Am I going to get one? You bet! I have a place on the mantle
just waiting for it.
Chris Armstrong sent me this link
- a local radio station has done a song about the end of the Kingdome!
Many people have dropped wonderful notes into my site guest book...
Go to the main page and click
on guest book to read what your fellow page visitors have said.
I plan to take one final photo tomorrow morning before the
blast. And, then, of course, one after the blast as soon as the
dust clears. I'll try to get it up here by about 10 a.m. (Pacific
time) tomorrow. |
Still Saturday
but now 10:15 p.m. - Steve Sorbo was one of the throngs who came to
take photos today. He got this great shot of my condo building all
wrapped up read for the blast. He had no trouble finding my unit
because of the hole in the plastic. He even added the red
circle. He took this at 7 p.m. It's a still from his
Sony camcorder. And he graciously said I could share it with you all. |
THE
DAY, Part 1 - 6:30 a.m. - The first (and, hopefully, the last)
crisis of the day has been fixed. No newspaper at my door this
morning. This wasn't terribly surprising. I threw on some clothes,
got my 'street pass' issued last week and a pocket full of change and
hit the street. Lots of police cars with their lights
flashing. There can't be another orange cone in the rest of the
world, they are all in my neighborhood. The side streets are full
of street cleaning machines ready and waiting. Police are
everywhere. And I saw two helicopters. But, God bless the
Seattle Times, there was one issue in the box on the corner. I
made it mine. I've taped up my hole but did use clear tape so I
can at least see when the dust settles.
I just heard on NPR that in a few minutes 'we will meet Susan Dennis
who is staying in her condo next door to the Kingdome while all her
neighbors evacuate'... hmmm I can't believe I am the only one!
|
The
Day, Part B - 9 a.m. - Wow. It was loud and it shook, rattled
and rolled. I had the TV on but, frankly, I was so involved with
the noise and the feel of it that I didn't really see it. It was a
series of blasts that was like POW POW POW POW. The cats ran to
the other end of the house with the first one. (They are
fine.) Stuff rattled on the shelves but nothing fell.
It got real dark outside real quick. Or, rather, from in here
it looked dark. But, that cleared up to sun again in about 15
minutes. I cut my hole again for my first look and everything is
gray. It's very strange looking. But, the strangest thing is
being able to see what has been on the other side of the Kingdome all
these years. Unfortunately, the sun is preventing me from
getting the best picture, but in Seattle, we try to never complain about
sun.
It was amazing. |
The
day, Part III - 1 p.m. - This is a big shot (when you click on the
thumbnail) so you can get the detail. We had quite a party
here. KingTV and KIROTV both came up to do interviews and get
shots off the terrace. Two of my neighbors came in with video they
had shot and we watched their efforts which were wonderful and great
fun. It doesn't appear as if there was any damage here in this
building. There are likely many many places where you can see the
implosion on the web - but here are two of my favorites - Dan's video and Steve's.
Oh, this photo has a red circle. You can't see it well, but the
flagpole that previously sat atop the roof of the Kingdome landed on the
ground standing up! It's leaning a bit but it's there. Amazing.
I also must mention what a fabulous job the clean up crews are
doing. They started work within 10 minutes of the implosion and
they are out there now, sweeping, washing down and generally getting the
neighborhood back in shape.
My nephew is a big Red Sox fan and he's been giving me a hard time
about my appearance in the same issue of Sports Illustrated that
predicted the Red Sox will win the World Series. I have a large
collection of coffee mugs on shelves around the condo. I
discovered that the only coffee mug that fell off any shelf was my 1986
Red Sox World Series mug. It didn't break, but I do think it's
some kind of sign...
I know many of you will move on now that the implosion is over and I
just want to say thanks for stopping by. To the rest of you...
tomorrow starts the new stadium! I'll be here with the Photo Du
Jour and I'd love to have you back. Hey, we've got a new stadium
to build! |
Monday,
March 27, 4:30 p.m. - They just took down the plastic. You can
see in the crane where they are still taking it down from my the
terraces of my neighbors to the south. Work is steady on the
rubble. Lots of big machines. It looks like, to me, that the
main chore is separating the reinforcing metal from the big concrete
chunks.
I'm going to leave the photos from last week on this page for a
couple of more days and then I'll move them to a link like the ones
above. I've had a couple of notes asking if I was really going to
rename this whole thing to Rubble Dome. Nah, I'm going to leave it
Kingdome, at least for now. |
Tuesday,
March 28, 4:30 p.m. - I can see 9 of the rubble chompers like I have
circled on this photo working away. I'm sure they are called
something far less fun than rubble chompers. And, they aren't
really chomping, more like just moving the stuff around. But, they
are working hard. The pile of rubble is already looking different
than it did Sunday afternoon. |
Wednesday,
March 29, 4:30 p.m. - The rubble chompers are hard at work and
making great progress. They are putting all the steel from the
reinforced concrete into truck trailers to be hauled away. It's
quite cool to watch. But they still have a long way to go. |
Thursday,
March 30, 4:30 p.m. - Big discovery today! I had a group from
work over here for an offsite meeting and one of the women I work with
pointed out that I can actually see Mt. Ranier from my terrace
now! "The Mountain" as we call it here has been hidden
since the implosion and today was the first day it was
"out". Unfortunately, it's not quite clear enough to
show up in the photo but the red circle shows where it is - behind that
column. Also I have a much better view of the Safeco Field which
is the home of the Seattle Mariners (baseball). You can see the
edge of it on the right hand side of this picture. |
Friday,
March 31, 5:30 p.m. - I know I keep saying this, but I am still
amazed by all the progress they have made on the pile of rubble.
They are just digging right through it. I thought it was going to
take months to get it all sorted but it looks like it's going to take
only weeks. |

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