One of our strongest urges humanity has is to build and create. Many of us feel that it’s our purpose in life to bring up a family, start a business, even to take a bare patch of land and turn it into something of significance and meaning.

But, as much as we get pleasure and a feeling of satisfaction both from the act of creation and seeing its results, witnessing destruction can give as much, if not more, pleasure. After all, it is not possible to create something without destroying something else.

Purpose behind destruction

Ultimately, there can be many reasons why officials decide that a building or property requires a planned destruction. Perhaps they’ve fallen into disrepair or disuse. Perhaps it’s costing their owners too much for their upkeep, or it’s been decided that the land could be repurposed for housing or a new mall. Whatever the reason there is for the destruction, it’s certain to attract not just a crowd but a real sense of anticipation in the run-up to the event. This is because there is an art behind a planned demolition of a building. Firstly, it goes without saying there will be explosives. Beyond that, there is a level of craft required to ensure the building is destroyed in a manner that it falls into itself, like an implosion, to the extent that the rubble is not scattered, but in one pile.

Of course, it doesn’t always go exactly as planned. A great example of this is the so-called “Leaning Tower of Dallas”, an eleven-story office building in the state’s third-largest city. It took several attempts to finally get it to fall to the ground. In the meantime, the story became a Twitter sensation and generated countless memes in the process.

Destructive events

One demolition that went rather more smoothly saw the demise of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Donald Trump had cut all ties with the building in 2009 and since then it had fallen into serious disrepair.  Parts of the building had even started to fall off.  Putting aside the obvious risk this has to the public, perhaps the building itself had decided it didn’t have any reason to stand anymore.

So, owners of neighboring buildings were relieved when it was finally demolished in February 2021 using no less than 3,000 sticks of dynamite to bring it to the ground. There was also a very willing audience who each paid $10 to watch the spectacle, who were then left without the option of a casino. The demise of the Plaza Hotel and Casino may not be such bad news for gamblers in the state. A look at this site will confirm that there are plenty of online casino alternatives to enjoy in New Jersey. As is the trend today, the site is comprehensive and covers all welcome bonuses and an increasingly large wide choice of games. So they may not quite offer the spectacle of a collapsing building, but enthusiastic bettors will find enticing options online instead.

Of course, the big question that needs to be answered is why watching buildings being reduced to dust is such a big draw. Some psychologists have pinpointed the fact that it’s a “safe” way for us to act out our more destructive urges, those that will always exist as the flipside to our creative inclinations.

It’s also the fact that it’s an awesome experience, like standing at the foot of Niagara Falls or being under a jet plane as it comes into land.

And, of course, for some, it’s just a question of seeing a building they never liked very much disappearing from the skyline forever.