Filed under: Giants, Vikings, NFC East, NFC North
The videotape of the collapse of the roof in the Metrodome in Minneapolis Sunday resembles in some respects the film of the Hindenburg zeppelin burning in 1937 in Lakehurst, N.J.
The Hindenburg disaster was far worse because 36 people were killed; nobody died or got hurt in the Metrodome Sunday when the roof collapsed under the weight of snow. But the visual records make a similar impact on viewers because they will linger in memory as markers of the end of their eras.
The Hindenburg disaster ended the use of hydrogen-powered airships for passenger travel. The roof collapse at the Metrodome -- the fourth in its history -- showed again why air-supported stadium roofs were a cutting-edge technology of the late 20th Century that quickly came and went.
Sunday's collapse was not the worst such event. Twenty-five years ago, a similar avalanche in a similar stadium -- the Pontiac Silverdome, built by the same general contractor -- could have killed many people if it had occurred seven hours later, during a basketball game.
"That is not a model of a building they are building anymore," said John C. Mozena, a spokesman for the Silverdome, which is north of Detroit. "And there's a reason for that."
Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/12/12/metrodome-roof-inflated-by-a-dangerous-air-of-uncertainty/
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