On a cold Sunday morning 33 years ago this month, Chattanoogans came out by the hundreds to watch a spectacle that was over in 4 seconds.
Three-hundred and ninety-six pounds of strategically placed explosives, detonated by an 8-year-old boy, caused an empty Days Inn hotel to collapse at 8:06 a.m. The hotel was near the old Zayre department store on a parcel of land in Golden Gateway owned by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.
(READ MORE: When Zayre was the anchor of the Golden Gateway Shopping Center)
The insurance company had purchased the property in 1990 and decided to use the implosion method of demolition because it was said to be “faster, safer, better for the environment and less expensive,” according to a BlueCross executive. The building was leveled to make room for parking space.
Opinions varied on the scale of the spectacle.