Implosion 2:06 a.m. - Das Sands macht Platz für das Venetian

26.11.1996, Lesen Sie hier den Bericht über «Implosion 2:06 a.m. - Das Sands macht Platz für das Venetian».

By Cathy Scott & R. MARSH STARKS / LAS VEGAS SUN

A VENERABLE giant among Las Vegas resorts, the Sands is demolished to make room for a new $1.8 billion hotel and casino.

The Sands hotel-casino is history.

At 2:06 a.m. Nov. 26, 1996, the circular hotel-casino, once the playground for a group of entertainers dubbed the "Rat Pack," was razed by a demolition crew.

After a countdown from 10, there were seven dynamite blasts, and the 44-year-old, 17-story tower collapsed into a 30-foot-high pile of rubble. The whole thing took 10 seconds.

The implosion went off without a hitch, said Metro Police officers and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers who kept people from getting too close. No injuries were reported.

The only inconveniences were to motorists and pedestrians as police closed off Las Vegas Boulevard at Spring Mountain and Flamingo roads.

Workers with Controlled Demolition Inc. of Phoenix, Md., leveled the tower with what company President Mark Loizeaux described as a "no-frills" implosion.

A $1.8 billion, 6,000-room Venetian-themed hotel-casino will break ground on the Sands site early next year.

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At precisely 9:00 pm (PST) on June 30, 1996, under an ominous full moon, a crowd counted a ten second countdown leading to a pull of the main power switch darkening the main sign and hotel tower lights of the venerable Sands Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip for ever. The last guests were hesitatingly ushered from the gaming rooms and lounges three hours earlier as security and gaming officials closed down the tables and machines one by one. The front doors were finally slid into place and sealed by workmen. Displaced employees and onlookers exchanged condolences and many hung on under the great marquee for hours, whispering, not wanting to leave. Hoping perhaps the world would reset and start anew if they waited long enough and then they could go back inside as if nothing had happened.

For 44 years the Sands dominated the strip in entertainment and good times. For many who visited year after year, it was an old friend, a place of enduring stability in a city of ever-changing skylines as one property tries to outdo the previous years' attractions. Unfortunately for the Sands this competition was just too much to keep up with and still maintain the old style ambiance and so the current owner, Sheldon Adelson, has decided to ditch it all and start over from scratch with a new property poised to rise from the demolition in a couple of years to beat all!

Über The Sands Hotel and Casino:

Abriss des Sands durch eine Implosion am 26. November 1996. Nach 44 Jahren macht das Sands Platz für den Neubau des Venetian.

Das Sands Hotel war ein US-amerikanisches Hotel in Las Vegas auf dem Las Vegas Strip. Es wurde am 15. Dezember 1952 eröffnet.

Wie das benachbarte Desert Inn gehörte es in den 1960er Jahren Howard Hughes. Am 30. Juni 1996 wurde das Sands Hotel geschlossen und danach abgerissen.

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