Moment Donald Trump's Old Casino Implodes Seen in Dramatic Pictures and Video
Pictures and videos have captured the dramatic moment Donald Trump's old casino in Atlantic City imploded into a smoking pile of rubble.
The building on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, which was home to the former Trump Plaza casino, was demolished at around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, having fallen into disrepair.
In videos of the event, loud explosions can be heard a few seconds before the building begins to collapse.
In a wave-like movement, the back of the building started to fall down first with the rest of it following until all that remained was a cloud of dust billowing out into the area. All in all, it collapsed in less than 20 seconds.
Fire Chief Scott Evans told The Associated Press that demolition crews positioned explosives in strategic places along the building's support structures to bring the building down on itself with debris falling in a slight north-northeast direction.
History of Trump Plaza
Trump opened the casino in 1984 when he was still a real estate developer, and it became the most successful casino in Atlantic City for a time.
The former president owned a total of three casinos in Atlantic City over the years, but all went bankrupt multiple times and he lost more than $700 million. He left the casino business in 2009.
Bernie Dillon, the events manager for Trump Plaza from 1884 to 1991, told the news agency: "The way we put Trump Plaza and the city of Atlantic City on the map for the whole world was really incredible."
Dillon described how the casino drew stars like Hulk Hogan, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Sean Penn, Barbra Streisand and "Oprah sitting with Donald ringside".
"One night before a [Mike] Tyson fight I stopped dead in my tracks and looked about four rows in as the place was filling up, and there were two guys leaning in close and having a private conversation: Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty," he added. "It was a special time. I'm sorry to see it go."
Bob McDevitt, president of the main casino workers' union, also told AP the place was very glamorous when it first opened.
But he added that Trump Plaza started to go downhill as soon as Trump opened the nearby Taj Mahal in 1990. Mounting debt meant the company was forced to invest all its resources in the new project.
McDevitt said: "In order to make sure the Taj Mahal was successful, they shipped all the high rollers from Trump Plaza and Trump's Castle to the Taj, and they really didn't invest in the Plaza much."
Trump Plaza was reportedly the worst-performing casino in Atlantic City by the time it closed in 2014.
Before it was demolished on Wednesday, the building was owned by billionaire Carl Icahn, who bought the two remaining Trump casinos in 2016. According to AP, parts of the building had reportedly begun falling off and crashing to the ground.
