Blast to destroy 230-foot smokestack
A 230-foot-high relic of Tacoma's dirty industrial age will be blown to smithereens today.About noon, crews hired by American Construction Co. of Everett will blow up the smokestack on an abandoned property on Tacoma's Tideflats. That property, at 1501 Taylor Way, once was part of the Commencement Bay Superfund site.
The area immediately surrounding the property will be closed to the public during today's demolition, but American Construction spokesman Dan Dickey said good views can be had from Marine View Drive or the Murray Morgan Bridge, which carries 11th Street over the Thea Foss Waterway.
Blast to destroy 230-foot smokestack TheNewsTribune.com Tacoma, WA
Well, how often does one to get to see a huge smokestack blown to smithereens? "I am so there, " I thought. 11:59 am. I am running a bit late and trying to find good viewpoint out on the tideflats. Crossing the Puyallup River Bridge I spot the best view I could find at that moment. But where to park? Had to be quick since the thing could blow at any moment. 11th street in the tideflats sees about 1 car every five minutes. 
And it's 2 lanes each direction so I do a U-Turn and just pull over after crossing back over the bridge. Blocking one lane. Do you see where this is going? 45 minutes later, after plunking every rock I could find into the river, the f@$king smokestack still hasn't blown. Back to the car, I meet a friendly neighborhood police officer. Does she read me the riot act? Yes. She asks if I would do such a thing on I-5? I say no but that this is not I-5. She asks how long I have been driving. I say a long time. She tells me to stay right where I am at and heads back to her police SUV. 5 minutes pass. I can still see the smokestack standing proud from where I am at. F@$king smokestack! Maybe 10 minutes pass she comes back out of the police SUV: $30 ticket and that she had to call off the impound truck. I guess I wasn't contrite enough. I didn't make any excuses or beg to have her let me off just one time. I just didn't have it in me. I was feeling pretty zen like when she was grilling me. It was a stupid thing to park in the lane but... I just couldn't get that worked up over it. It is good that I didn't answer one of her questions with a Zen Koan-type answer:
Ships cannot remain where the water is too shallow.
Probably would not have gone over too well!!
--------------------------------------
UPDATE: drove to a hilltop view around 4:30pm today, f@$king smokestack still standing... (sigh)
--------------------------------------
UPDATE: just thought that I might have been looking at the wrong smokestack? Hmmm... how many 230 foot high smokestacks are on the tideflats anyway?
No comments:
Post a Comment