Lake Champlain Bridge Demolition in Crown Point-Video

by Jordan Yerman | December 28, 2009 at 07:30 am

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The Champlain Bridge, which links Crown Point, NY to West Addison, VT was demolished early this morning by a company called Advance Explosives Demolition. Linear shape charges were used to demolish the Champlain Bridge. The scheduled demolition of the Champlain Bridge, a historical landmark, was in the planning stages for years. (WCAX Channel 3 in Vermont covered it live, but we found some firsthand footage on Youtube)

The 2,200-foot Champlain Bridge was riddled with deep cracks, and was closed to motor traffic. Engineers decided that it would be faster and easier to destroy the bridge and build a new one than to attempt to repair the existing structure.

The demolition was carried out by a company from Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, called Advance Explosives Demolition.

Crews have spent the past several days preparing the bridge for a controlled detonation; a series of small explosions that happen almost simultaneously and "cut" the bridge into sections that then drop into the lake.

The eighty-year-old Champlain Bridge joined two states with different attitudes and different laws:

"The legal drinking age in Vermont was 21, in New York it was 18," Clark says.

A stone's throw from the bridge a New York bar served as the perfect clubhouse for young adults on both sides of the lake.

"I guess you could call it kind of a honky tonk, they had dancing there," Clark says.