Stardust hotel and casino crumbles amid spectacular fireworks display

The Stardust hotel and casino was demolished on Tuesday 12th March 2007, in order to make room for Echelon, Boyd Gaming Corp.’s $4.4 billion mega casino resort.

It opened on 2nd July 1958, and was Las Vegas’ first mass-market casino, thanks to cheap rates and free food and drinks.

The implosion transformed a 32-story tower, which had been reduced to concrete and steel over the past three months, into the tallest building that was ever demolished on the Las Vegas Strip.

To implode the Stardust’s two towers, 428 pounds of explosives were placed in holes around the building, and covered with sandbags. Chargers were timed to ensure the building toppled into itself.

Twenty water cannons sprayed the massive dust cloud, which covered the area. The demolition also caused a temporary shut down of the streets close to the site. Cleaning up the site is expected to take up to two months.

Razzmatazz was the order of the night, in the form of a huge fireworks display as a pyrotechnics company choreographed a display to complement the implosion.

But the work isn’t all over now the towers fallen. Each floor of the larger structure resulted in about 2 feet of debris. About 60 workers have been assigned to clean up the dust, and by the time the entire site is clear, about 170,000 tons of debris will have been removed. Only then will the former Stardust site be ready for Echelon, which is scheduled for opening in 2010.