Demolition crews imploded the infamous Intel building in downtown Austin at 7:37 Sunday morning.
More than 1,000 people lined up at several vantage points about two blocks away from the site to watch the skeleton of the building collapse.
It took about 12 seconds for most of the structure to fall. The two ends of the L-shaped building remained just partially collapsed. According to officials this was expected. It will take about an hour for crews to assess the site.
A very large dust cloud was created by the explosions. The sound of the explosion could be heard throughout downtown.
"It was like a sonic boom travelling through my body," one spectator said.
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Real-time Collapse
Watch the Intel building implosion in real-time.
 
Angle 2
Watch the collapse from a different angle.
Angle 3
Watch the Intel implosion from a third angle.
Slow-mo collapse
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Construction of the building stopped six years ago in 2001 when Intel decided it was not economically feasible to complete construction of the shell. The dot-com bust had just occurred and the $124 million project quickly became an eyesore and a big question mark for the city.
The crews prepared the structure throughout the month by boring holes in the supports. Then 400 to 500 pounds of gelatin dynamite were packed inside 100 of the columns. The building was imploded by sequentially blowing up the columns starting from the inside then moving out.
On Saturday the demolition company tested their system by blowing up one of the columns.
Before the implosion Sunday morning, Austin Police cleared a two-block radius around the building. There were approximately 20 cars removed by Southside Towing.
