At approximately 8:32 a.m. on a beautiful Sunday morning, Controlled Demolition's Thom Doud and Raymond Zukowski hit the two buttons that set off the charges. A powerful boom rocked the downtown area, which was largely deserted, and the Kindome began to crumble. A plume of dust immediately began growing, enshrouding the area for blocks. As the dust cleared, what had just been a 63,000-seat stadium was an immense pile of rubble.

The transformation took just under 17 seconds. For a time-lapse video of the demolition, click here. Below you'll find photos of the scene that surrounded this spectacular event.

The sun rises on the Kingdome for the last time, Sunday, March 26.

The demolition drew a crowd of boats rivaling the Sound traffic Seattle sees for the 4th of July celebration.

The first charges began the collapse of the roof, whose wedge-shaped pieces fell to the ground to form in rather orderly fashion, creating a rather neat circle pattern once the dome was demolished.

In a few seconds, spectators could only see an enormous cloud of dust that hovered for several minutes after the implosion was finished.

Other than a few cracked windows on nearby buildings, the explosions did no harm to nearby buildings. The force of the blast did send some lighter building debris across the roof of the nearby Exposition Center.

After the dust settled, the only thing left standing on the Kingdome site was a stair tower (center) built as part of new Football stadium by Turner Construction, who began construction on the tower in November 1999.

After the site area was declared safe, cleanup crews from Aman Environmental Construction moved in to begin the lengthy site cleanup, which is expected to take several weeks.