The 39-story building in Atlantic City, which was permanently closed since 2014, is demolished with a series of controlled explosions in front of a local crowd of cheering bystanders.
- Feb 18, 2021
AceShowbiz - This may be a coincidence, but as Donald Trump's reign as a president recently came to an end, one of his buildings that mark his real-estate empire has also permanently gone. Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey was demolished on Wednesday, February 17.
The 39-story building came down shortly after 9 A.M. with a series of controlled explosions that lasted less than 30 seconds. The tower was reduced to rubble and dust in just 20 seconds by 3,000 sticks of dynamite.
There were cheers from a viewing party of people who had paid $10 to watch from their cars. Jennifer Owen, 50, who bid $575 to win a front-row seat at a V.I.P. breakfast in an oceanfront pavilion with a direct view of the implosion, said of what the tower demolition symbolized, "It's an end of a not-so-great era," adding, "It's symbolic for sure. Him. Everything ending."
Marty Small, the city mayor who had described the abandoned building as an eyesore, told the Associated Press, "I got chills. This is a historic moment. It was exciting." Small estimated the remaining pile of rubble was about eight stories high and would be removed by 10 June.
Even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton celebrated the topple of Trump's building as she simply tweeted a waving hand emoji along with Bloomberg's tweet about the news.
Roy M. Foster, president of the Atlantic and Cape May Counties Central Labor Council, said the event was bittersweet. "It's a good day. It's a bad day," he expressed his mixed feelings. "A lot of us worked on that building."
Trump Plaza operated from 1984 and was permanently closed in 2014 following an oversaturated casino market both in the New Jersey and along the larger northeast. It was the first of three casinos that Trump owned before his gambling businesses in Atlantic City cratered and went bankrupt for good. The Trump Taj Mahal has been renamed as the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino while the Trump Marina is now called the Golden Nugget Atlantic City.
