Wednesday, December 01, 2021

The Zip Feed Tower Story

 The Zip Feed Mill in Sioux Falls had a 202-foot grain elevator that was the tallest building in South Dakota from the time it was built in 1956 until it was scheduled for demolition in December 3, 2005. At that time, it became the second tallest building in South Dakota.

Instead of coming apart under the stress of falling, the tower remained solid and just slid down into its basement, to much amusement from the crowd that had gathered to watch the demolition. However, it was quite tilted, so it was too dangerous to go in and rig it with explosives again. They ended up using a crane and a wrecking ball to take the tower down. You can read a history of the building here.
(via a comment at reddit)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

> the tower remained solid and just slid down into its basement

At which time, it became the third tallest building is South Dakota.