BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WNEP/WPHL) -- The building dubbed the tallest in the Lehigh Valley is now a pile of rubble. The 21 story Martin Tower was demolished early Sunday morning in a controlled explosion. 16,000 tons of steal collapsed changing the landscape in Bethlehem in a matter of about 15 seconds.

For decades, Martin Tower housed the headquarters for the Bethlehem Steel Company. The company opened in 1972 and in it's heyday was America's second-largest steelmaker. It went out of business in 2003, and sat vacant up until it's demolition on Sunday. Thousands of people flocked to 8th Avenue in Bethlehem see the iconic building one last time before it crashed to the ground.

"I've been seeing that building everyday since I was born." Brian Bond told Newswatch16, our sister station in Scranton. "I never saw a building get blown up so I wasn't going to miss it," he added.

Others who spoke with Newswatch16 said they were sad to see the tower go, but they are excited to see what the future holds. Martin Tower's current owners looked into redeveloping the building, but decided it made more sense financially to tear it down and start over. There are plans in place to redevelop the site and add medical offices, stores, a hotel and apartments.

Martin Tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in June of 2010 because of it's historic significance as the corporate symbol of the Bethlehem Steel Company. Steel manufactured from it's plants were used on in the construction of the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Chase Senior from WNEP contributed to this article. </s> There was a thunderous roar, a monumental collapse, then nothing.

Martin Tower is no more. Its long-anticipated demolition went off without a hitch. Hundreds turned out on a calm, overcast morning to watch the tower fall at 7 a.m. Sunday.

Once the tallest building in the Lehigh Valley, the cross-shaped tower dominated the Bethlehem landscape since 1972. It once provided corner officers to Bethlehem Steel executives. It outlasted the company but has been vacant since 2007.

With no feasible plans to renovate it, the tower’s owner decided to take it down. Its 53-acre campus is slated to become a mixed-use development of 528 garden-style apartments, retail, medical office buildings, a hotel and a gas station.

For some, the tower stood for corporate greed. Others loved it so much they started a Facebook group to save it. Now it’s gone but the mark it left on the community endures.

Keep checking lehighvalleylive.com for more coverage of the Martin Tower implosion.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. </s> BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) — Sixteen thousand tons of Bethlehem Steel is due to collapse in a matter of seconds as a demolition crew is set to implode Martin Tower, the defunct steelmaker’s former world headquarters.

Crowds are expected on Sunday to watch the demolition of the area’s tallest building, a 21-story monolith that opened at the height of Bethlehem Steel’s power and profitability. America’s second-largest steelmaker went out of business in 2003.

Explosives will take out Martin Tower’s steel supports and crumple the 47-year-old building, which has earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places despite its relatively young age.

Martin Tower had been vacant for a dozen years. Its owners are redeveloping the site into a mix of medical offices, stores and apartments. </s> BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) - Sixteen thousand tons of Bethlehem Steel is due to collapse in a matter of seconds as a demolition crew imploded Martin Tower, the defunct steelmaker's former world headquarters.

Crowds are expected on Sunday to watch the demolition of the area's tallest building, a 21-story monolith that opened at the height of Bethlehem Steel's power and profitability. America's second-largest steelmaker went out of business in 2003.

Explosives will take out Martin Tower's steel supports and crumple the 47-year-old building, which has earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places despite its relatively young age.

Martin Tower had been vacant for a dozen years. Its owners are redeveloping the site into a mix of medical offices, stores and apartments.

This May 8, 2019, photo shows Martin Tower in Bethlehem, Pa. The 21-story building, the former global headquarters of defunct steelmaker Bethlehem Steel Corp., is set to be imploded on May 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Rubinkam) </s> Sixteen thousand tons of Bethlehem Steel collapsed in a matter of seconds Sunday as a demolition crew imploded Martin Tower, the defunct steelmaker's former world headquarters in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Crowds watched the demolition of the area's tallest building, a 21-story monolith that opened at the height of Bethlehem Steel's power and profitability.

America's second-largest steelmaker went out of business in 2003.

Explosives took out Martin Tower's steel supports and crumple the 47-year-old building, which earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places despite its relatively young age.

Martin Tower had been vacant for a dozen years.

Its owners are redeveloping the site into a mix of medical offices, stores and apartments.

Watch the video to see the dramatic demolition of the building. </s> BETHLEHEM, Pa. (CBS/AP) — Sixteen thousand tons of Bethlehem Steel collapsed in a matter of seconds Sunday as a demolition crew imploded Martin Tower, the defunct steelmaker’s former world headquarters. Crowds gathered to watch the demolition of the area’s tallest building, a 21-story monolith that opened at the height of Bethlehem Steel’s power and profitability but had stood vacant for a dozen years after America’s second-largest steelmaker went out of business.

Explosives took out Martin Tower’s steel supports and crumpled the 47-year-old building, which had earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places despite its relatively young age. The implosion, which took 16 seconds, created a thick plume of dust that lingered for several minutes.

Martin Tower was the world headquarters for the former Bethlehem Steel Corporation and is the tallest building in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Eyewitness News was granted exclusive access to the 21-story building before Sunday’s implosion.

Tyler Kent, whose father worked at Bethlehem Steel for 46 years and raised 11 children, said his “heart stopped” as he watched the building fall. His father and other relatives took pride in working at the industrial behemoth that armed the U.S. military and helped shape skylines across the country.

“To see it come down brought a tear to my eye. I didn’t think it was going to affect me emotionally like it did, but I just can’t imagine it’s gone. It’s so sad,” said Kent, who could see the tower from his house.

‘It Was State-Of-The-Art’: Historic Martin Tower In Bethlehem To Come Crumbling Down Sunday

Martin Tower’s current owners spent years trying to redevelop the 332-foot (101-meter) structure — the tallest in a heavily populated region of Pennsylvania that includes the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton — but ultimately concluded it made more economic sense to knock it down and start over. Plans call for a $200 million development with medical offices, retail stores, a restaurant, a convenience store, a hotel and 528 apartments.

Bethlehem Steel was a major supplier of ships and armaments to the U.S. military during World War II, and its steel is found in the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge and many other landmarks.

The company moved into its new corporate headquarters in 1972, shortly before the U.S. steel industry plunged into a severe recession. Bethlehem Steel, which employed more than 120,000 people when Martin Tower opened, declared bankruptcy in 2001 and closed for good two years later.

To some, the tower — built in a cruciform shape to maximize the number of corner offices — symbolized corporate excess.

“This is where the money went that the workers never got,” said Fran Maiatico, whose father worked at Bethlehem Steel. She was among hundreds of people who gathered several blocks away from the building Sunday to watch it come down.

Leonard Gentilcore, 88, a retired Bethlehem Steel structural draftsman who worked on Martin Tower, said he didn’t care that it was gone. He said he associated the building with out-of-touch company executives who helped drive Bethlehem Steel into the ground.

But his son, 49-year-old Mike Gentilcore, a former Bethlehem Steel metals researcher, said “it breaks my heart” that an important piece of the company’s history is no more. He recalled looking out the tower’s windows as a child, and later worked there himself.

“It’s the end of an era and I’m going to miss seeing it there,” he said.

The company’s flagship Bethlehem mill, less than 2 miles (3 kilometers) from Martin Tower, was redeveloped into a casino and entertainment destination 10 years ago. </s> In the blink of an eye Sunday morning, Bethlehem’s skyline will forever be changed with the implosion of the iconic 21-story Martin Tower.

Built over three years, the 332-foot building opened in 1972 and it may be the region’s most polarizing. It is both beloved and hated.

Some view it as an architectural gem – it sits on the National Register of Historic Places – and a crucial piece of Bethlehem Steel Corp. history.

Yet, many cheered when they learned it had a demolition date. (It’s 7 a.m. on Sunday. May 19, if you’ve been asleep for the last month.)

Some just think it’s ugly. Others see the steel-clad building with some of the Lehigh Valley’s best views as a symbol of the greed that brought down the Steel and destroyed the livelihoods of so many.

Less than a decade after the Steel’s shiny new world headquarters opened on 53-acres in West Bethlehem, the company that built Manhattan’s skyline was foundering. Competition from foreign steel drew the company quickly and sharply into the red leading to mass layoffs.

The tower’s most unique feature, its cruciform shape – meant to maximize the number of corner offices – ultimately did it in.

The developers say the unusual shape and its lack of a sprinkler system made reuse of the high-rise financially unfeasible. It has sat empty for more than a decade.

A controversial rezoning of the property in 2015 paved the way for owners Norton Herrick and Lewis Ronca to take down Martin Tower. The owners’ HRP Management LLC want to redevelop the site into a mixed-use $200 million development of 528 garden-style apartments, retail, medical office buildings, a hotel and a gas station.

Since 2017, contractors have been working on the environmental cleanup of the property, including asbestos abatement, and have torn down 400,000-square-feet of ancillary buildings through mechanical demolition.

It’s expected to take fewer than 17 seconds to implode the concrete and steel shell of the tower that remains on the site. The demolition is scheduled for about 7 a.m. but the exact go-time is contingent on a host of conditions perfectly aligning.

“It is going to sound like a thunderstorm passing directly over your head,” Jim Santoro of Controlled Demolition Inc., the company tasked with tearing down the landmark, has said.

Onlookers will hear a series of bangs about a half second apart -- the initiation system -- and then structural charges going off in a coordinated pattern that takes down a column of the cruciform tower at a time.

“Charges are going to look like they are going off vertically through the structure,” Santoro said. “It is going to look like you are slicing a loaf of bread from the bottom up.”

Those linear-shaped charges will shear through the steel support columns and then gravity will do the rest to bring down the region’s tallest building.

“By removing the columns of the building in a pattern that we determine, we can sort of direct which way the building is going to fall and how it moves,” Santoro said.

To make sure the tower crumbles, relief lines have been cut in the skin of the building and charges will also be placed on the third, seventh, 13th and 17th floors to control where it breaks apart.

The majority of the tower is anticipated to fall within the building’s footprint and immediately to the southeast. It will then be reused as clean fill on the site when it is redeveloped.

Where can’t you go?

Bethlehem has set up an exclusion zone for the implosion. It extends from the Route 378 on/off ramps at the south, through the center of the Lowe’s parking lot, up along Ralston Road to Richard Avenue at the north, down Schoenersville Road and into the woods alongside Burnside Plantation.

Here’s where you can’t be when Martin Tower implodes (MAP)

Where can you watch

City officials say the best place to watch the implosion is on TV. We plan to stream it live on our Facebook page, as well. But here is where we think the best viewing spots will be.

Martin Tower demolition: 5 great places to watch the Bethlehem landmark implode (and what roads to avoid that morning)

City officials say if you are worried about air quality following the explosion or you have respiratory issues it is best to stay inside. They are not advising that onlookers wear respirators, but the state Department of Health did suggest them.

HRP Management has hired an independent third-party lab to conduct air quality monitoring before, during and after the implosion. The data will be made public and state health officials have promised to review the testing results.

Breathe easy, Pa. health officials say. They’ll also be monitoring air at Martin Tower implosion

To keep the dust out of your house, as a precaution, it is recommended that residents keep all doors, windows and intake units closed as well as any openings that might allow dust to come in; painter’s tape is a good way to seal off a gap.

Starting at 5 a.m., city police will shut down Eighth Avenue from Union Boulevard to Bradford Street; Eaton Avenue from Elizabeth Avenue to Ralston Road and Route 378 at the Eighth Avenue exit ramps in both directions.

Around 6:30 a.m. police will shut down Route 378 from Catasauqua Road to the Main Street ramp. A command post and media staging area will be set up at Nitschmann Middle School.

What could delay the start?

The starting time could get bumped back if extremely heavy rain or a low-lying fog restricts visibility. If there is a thunderstorm directly overhead it also must be delayed.

Here’s more of our Martin Tower demolition coverage:

It took 3 years to build Martin Tower and it’ll take fewer than 17 seconds to bring it down

Hold off on the laundry until after the Martin Tower implosion, Bethlehem advises residents

8 towering facts about the PPL Building, the Lehigh Valley’s once and future tallest building

Breathe easy, Pa. health officials say. They’ll also be monitoring air at Martin Tower implosion

Here’s where you can’t be when Martin Tower implodes (MAP)

This is the closest we’ll come to a sneak peek of Martin Tower coming down. Watch it. (VIDEO)

Residents want to know: Will our air be safe after Martin Tower implodes?

‘It is going to sound like a thunderstorm’: Here’s how Martin Tower will come down

So there’s gonna be dust? This and 10 other frequently asked questions about Martin Tower’s implosion.

Bringing the house down: Local comedians to roast Martin Tower on the eve of its destruction

Photo exhibit provides one last look inside Bethlehem’s doomed Martin Tower

The Martin Tower site is going suburban and city planners might be on board

‘Reasonable’ measures to control Martin Tower implosion dust to be reviewed by state (UPDATE)

When Martin Tower comes down, here’s what they want to build (MAP)

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. </s> May 19 (UPI) -- The 21-story Martin Tower, which was the former world headquarters of Bethlehem Steel, was imploded Sunday morning as bystanders lined the streets of Bethlehem and gathered on rooftops.

It took 14 seconds for the 332-foot tower -- the tallest in Bethelem -- to become a heap of debris, The Morning Call reported.

The 500 cubic yards of concrete and nearly 16,000 tons of structural steel collapsed at 7:04 a.m. from explosive charges.

A series of bangs erupted within a half-second of each other and then there was a boom, like a strong thunderstorm.

Though the implosion took a short time, cleanup is expected to take up to a year. The concrete will be processed, crushed and used as fill material, and the structural steel recycled.

Spectators arrived hours earlier to watch the implosion. Customers Serita Dunst and Sean Wundling of Saylorsburg said they left home at 3 a.m. for a good viewing spot.

"When are you going to see something like this?" Wundling said.

Within a 1,000-foot perimeter of Martin Tower, people were advised to stay inside their residences.

Because a helicopter was flying too close and some people were crowding too near the exclusion zone, the demolition was delayed a few minutes.

"They weren't on the site but they were inside the established permitted zone," Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition, Inc., told lehighvalleylive.com. "A few young people were hiding in the trees."

Controlled Demolition Inc., a 72-year-old Maryland company, brought down the building at an estimated estimated of $575,000. The company has imploded casinos in Las Vegas and Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

"I'll shed a tear or two," said Steve Smith, who worked at Steel from 1966 to 2003 and described himself as "the last janitor at Martin Tower," told the Morning Call.

The building was on National Register of Historic Places.

Martin Tower opened in 1972 when Bethlehem Steel was the second largest steelmaker in the world. The building was named after Edmund F. Martin, who was chairman when construction began in 1969.

The company declared bankruptcy in 2001 and sold its assets in 2003.

After the company's assets were sold off, two tenants -- D&B Corp. and Receivable Management Services -- remained but they moved elsewhere in the Lehigh Valley in 2007. The tower was vacant ever since.

Owners Lewis Ronca and Norton Herrick plan to replace the tower with a mix of residential and commercial buildings that rise no higher than three stories on 53 acres. </s> BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Sixteen thousand tons of Bethlehem Steel collapsed in a matter of seconds as a demolition crew imploded Martin Tower, the defunct steelmaker's former world headquarters.Crowds gathered on Sunday to watch the demolition of the area's tallest building, a 21-story monolith that opened in 1972 at the height of Bethlehem Steel's power and profitability.America's second-largest steelmaker went out of business in 2003.For neighbor Larry Ries it hurt to see it come down."It's a shame I grew up with it," said Larry Ries of Bethlehem. "Im sorry but hate to see that they couldn't save it."Ries is not alone. Many people in the crowd of hundreds had an emotional connection to former world headquarters of Bethlehem Steel.Just about everyone we spoke with knew someone, family or friend, who at one time worked for the company."It's the end of an era," said Jim Alexy. "It's a bit sad and nostalgic. My dad worked there on the 3rd floor when it was built."Explosives took out Martin Tower's steel supports and crumpled the 47-year-old building in under 20 seconds.Martin Tower had been vacant for a dozen years. Up until Sunday morning, it stood as the tallest building in the region, even earning a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.Some like Clement Swaby had been using it for years as a guide."I used it when I'm driving certain places to pinpoint my way back home," said Clement Swaby of Bethlehem.It also signified what once was here. Bethlehem Steel was one of the biggest and most profitable companies in the world.Its owners are redeveloping the site into a mix of medical offices, stores and apartments.----------
Martin Tower, the tallest building in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is destroyed in a controlled demolition by the Controlled Demolition, Inc. firm. The 21-story building, which was listed on National Register of Historic Places, had been vacant since 2007.