The Athlone Towers – a photo montage

Credits to all posters of the following images and videos of the Athlone Cooling Towers in Cape Town (also known as the “coffee cups” and "the two ladies of Athlone").

Here’s a nice blog giving the history of the “coffee cups” (by Andrew Boraine, Chief Executive of the Cape Town Partnership): http://www.andrewboraine.com/2010/08/athlone-towers-a-giant-new-opportunity-for-a-different-approach-to-city-building/

I’ve been through most of the Tweets using the HashTag “#CapeTowers” and found these gems of pictures and videos… Athlone Towers RIP, I’ll miss you every day I drive to and from work!

Built in 1968, served its purpose well for 25 to 30 years.

The towers were scheduled to be demolished at noon, however, 4 minutes before noon, they were imploded… was that a ‘premature detonation’?  Heard on eTV news: “the authorities saw that the weather conditions were perfect.”

RT @rogeema: Dear people of @CapeTown...not the mayor's fault the #capetowers blew early. He didn't push the button, his switch was a dummy!

@mrtuckbox: Explosive guys’ call, as the rain stopped and wind was right or had dropped, hence 3 mins early.

http://twitter.com/brauteseth: Towers go BOOM!: http://twitpic.com/2h59b9:
Stunning picture of the imploding:
 

Right tower flops over, rather gracefully:
(credit http://twitter.com/Jane_Anne62/)

Video of the Athlone Towers falling (credit to http://twitter.com/anastacia/): http://qik.com/video/11052855 

Video on implosion: http://qik.ly/CFV1c  

Video from News24: http://bit.ly/bSXODM

implosion at 210 frames per second (credit: http://twitter.com/phaezen, video by Justin Mopp) Login to FaceBook: http://bit.ly/dxeadv

Roughly 7000 explosive cord and water-based gelignite charges were used to implode the towers.  Explosives were placed around 2/3 of the base of the towers which forced the towers to fall towards each other and downwards.  The explosion was estimated to be 135 decibels, the same sound-level a jet would make.  Resulting on over 21,000 tonnes of concrete that now needs to be cleared up.
Credit: MsBlondeSam http://twitter.com/christina_em7/ (forwards and reverse and in slow motion)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83-EPAiL0zo

http://youtu.be/akCPyJpD_EE (credit to http://twitter.com/marek_koza/)

Video of the implosion:  http://qik.com/video/11052855

Best footage of the Cape Athlone Towers imploding - Remember the name Century Film School filmed by Costa Firfilis: http://www.twitvid.com/FFXWO

 

Credits: sarin54 http://www.youtube.com/user/sarin54:

 

Video by Padraic O'Meara: http://vimeo.com/14335729

What’s left of the Towers (credit: @iamzeed http://tweetphoto.com/user/1833160) :

An aerial view after the implosion - seems like there's so little rubble? (thanks to @retiefdv for pointing me to this one): 

Credit http://twitter.com/carolune/: Rubble: this is the neatest destruction job ever! Hats off to the engineers!

The N2 will never be the same without Salt & Pepper :(

See the News24 article on the implosion: 'Ladies of Athlone' tumble ahead of time