PITTSBURGH – A cloud of dust went up, and Three Rivers
Stadium came down.
Sunday marked the end of one of the nation's best-known stadiums – site of one of football's most famous plays and a Pittsburgh pro sports resurgence in the 1970s.
|  | | Three Rivers Stadium comes down in only 19 seconds after 30 years of service in Pittsburgh. |
Thousands of onlookers cheered the implosion of the 30-year-old
home of the Pirates and Steelers. Experts loaded 4,800 pound of
dynamite into the mammoth circular stadium last week to clear the
way for separate baseball and football stadiums nearby.
The stadium's western wall tumbled inward and the rest of the
structure collapsed into a cloud of dust. The $5.1 million
implosion lasted about 19 seconds.
"This is a very bittersweet day for me," Mayor Tom Murphy
said. "I remember being here at the last baseball game of the '95
season when we weren't sure that we were even going to have a team
anymore."
Three Rivers opened in 1970 at a cost of $36 million. It
immediately boosted the Pirates and Steelers.
After moving in at midseason, the Pirates ended a 10-year
championship drought by winning the first of their nine divisional
titles. They also won two NL pennants and World Series titles in
1971 and 1979.
The Steelers soon became a dynasty, winning four Super Bowls in
six years and churning out several Hall of Famers.
The stadium also saw one of the most famous plays in NFL
history, a wildly deflected touchdown pass from Terry Bradshaw to
Franco Harris in a 1972 playoff game that was instantly dubbed the
"Immaculate Reception."
Former Pirates manager Jim Leyland watched from the nearby D.L.
Clark Building. His teams won the NL East in the stadium in 1990,
1991 and 1992.
"You know, I didn't feel much about it until today," he said.
"I got a little sentimental seeing it happen."
PNC Park opens with the Pirates and Mets in an exhibition game
March 31, and the unnamed Steelers stadium opens this fall.
Joseph King, 16, won a raffle to earn the right to push a
plunger to start the demolition. The blast was followed by a round
of fireworks.
"This is the greatest day of my life," King said. "I heard
the bangs, and it seemed like forever before it went down."
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Three Rivers stadium is turned into a pile of rubble.
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