Coliseum Fall Down, Go Boom
all photos courtesy of Keith Krolak
This is the view from my condo in Downtown New Haven.The hulking structure with the triangles is the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum as it stood at 7:30 yesterday morning. The Coliseum hosted everything from hockey games and the circus (same thing in sense) to concerts and bridal fairs. It's been there for roughly thirty-five years, but officially closed in 2002. The last event held there was a Barry Manilow Concert.
7:49am: There was a series of explosions and the building started to come down like a stack of pancakes. It was the implosion people had been waiting for since Barry Manilow left town. It was louder than I thought it would be and only took 17 seconds, but damn, it was something to see and hear and feel. The clock on our kitchen wall was rattled to an interesting angle and the bathtub ML and I were standing in shook. There was a resounding chorus of "Holy S**T!" in our place. I say chorus because, like so many other people in Greater New Haven, not only were we up, we were throwing a party! Yes, indeed, we invited people over for breakfast with a bang! When you have seven windows facing what will probably be the biggest event of the year, you want to share those windows and the experience with your friends. So, up we were at 5:45am, with guests arriving for bagels, coffee, eggs and Bellinis starting at 6:30am. Twenty guests in all here at our place, which is nothing compared to the thousands of people hanging out on the roof of the Temple Street Garage to watch this thing come down. It was pretty amazing, and although there was this lingering sense of 9/11, especially when the smoke started rolling across the sky, at least this time we all knew we were safe. Here's some video that ML's brother took from our window and posted to YouTube.
And here is what the Ninth Square looked like after 8am. Some folks had windows that shattered and some light poles were taken out by the blast, but as they said on the news, the implosion was "moderately successful."
So, now THIS will be my view for the next four to six months...a crooked-assed bunch of triangles and the two parking helices they didn't implode. But, I got to see something really cool, throw a super fun party and come July 4, I'll be able to see the fireworks not one, not two, but up to three towns from the comfort of my air conditioned home. Good times.
This is the view from my condo in Downtown New Haven.The hulking structure with the triangles is the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum as it stood at 7:30 yesterday morning. The Coliseum hosted everything from hockey games and the circus (same thing in sense) to concerts and bridal fairs. It's been there for roughly thirty-five years, but officially closed in 2002. The last event held there was a Barry Manilow Concert. 
7:49am: There was a series of explosions and the building started to come down like a stack of pancakes. It was the implosion people had been waiting for since Barry Manilow left town. It was louder than I thought it would be and only took 17 seconds, but damn, it was something to see and hear and feel. The clock on our kitchen wall was rattled to an interesting angle and the bathtub ML and I were standing in shook. There was a resounding chorus of "Holy S**T!" in our place. I say chorus because, like so many other people in Greater New Haven, not only were we up, we were throwing a party! Yes, indeed, we invited people over for breakfast with a bang! When you have seven windows facing what will probably be the biggest event of the year, you want to share those windows and the experience with your friends. So, up we were at 5:45am, with guests arriving for bagels, coffee, eggs and Bellinis starting at 6:30am. Twenty guests in all here at our place, which is nothing compared to the thousands of people hanging out on the roof of the Temple Street Garage to watch this thing come down. It was pretty amazing, and although there was this lingering sense of 9/11, especially when the smoke started rolling across the sky, at least this time we all knew we were safe. Here's some video that ML's brother took from our window and posted to YouTube. 
So, now THIS will be my view for the next four to six months...a crooked-assed bunch of triangles and the two parking helices they didn't implode. But, I got to see something really cool, throw a super fun party and come July 4, I'll be able to see the fireworks not one, not two, but up to three towns from the comfort of my air conditioned home. Good times. 
2 comments:
That was fun! They should do that every year.
M
Did you have a feeling of deja vu? Daddy having people over at the crack of dawn on weekend mornings???
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