The last remnant of former President Trump’s once-glamorous Atlantic City casino empire was demolished early Wednesday.
At 9:08 a.m., the former Trump Plaza casino was razed in a controlled explosion, crumbling “like a deck of cards” as Fire Chief Scott Evans had earlier predicted.
Overall, it took the structure less than 20 seconds to collapse — crashing down in a giant cloud of dust that enveloped the beach and boardwalk.
More than 100 people lined the New Jersey beach to watch the boardwalk implosion of the casino that had fallen into disrepair after it was shuttered in 2014, the Press of Atlantic City said.
Mayor Marty Small told the paper he woke at 4:13 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep because he was so excited to get the “eyesore of Trump Plaza” down.
But in its heyday, the former casino was the jewel of former President Donald Trump’s casino empire.
After it opened in 1984, Trump Plaza became the most successful casino in Atlantic City for a time — and was a celeb magnet.
“The way we put Trump Plaza and the city of Atlantic City on the map for the whole world was really incredible,” Bernie Dillon, the events manager for the casino from 1984 to 1991 told the Associated Press.
“Everyone from Hulk Hogan to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was the whole gamut of personalities. One night before a Tyson fight I stopped dead in my tracks and looked about four rows in as the place was filling up, and there were two guys leaning in close and having a private conversation: Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.”
Other A-list guests included the likes of Madonna, Sean Penn, Barbra Streisand, Don Johnson, Muhammad Ali.
“It was a special time. I’m sorry to see it go,” Dillon said.
To complete the implosion, demolition crews strategically positioned explosives at certain points along the building’s support structures, knocking its legs out from under it and allowing the building to collapse down on itself, Evans explained.
The former casino — which used to market itself as “Atlantic City’s centerpiece” — was cleared to open a prime development opportunity.
Though the former president built it, the building was bought by billionaire Carl Icahn in 2016.
With Post wires
