In the days after Hurricane Irma, a toppled crane in downtown Miami became an unexpected attraction.
The crane, a casualty of the storm’s fierce winds, collapsed by Miami Dade College, looking like a giant limp Lego piece against the Miami skyline in the 300 block of Biscayne Boulevard. Since Sept. 10, it began drawing curious denizens who have snapped photos from the street or their high-rise apartments and shared them on social media.
“The fall looked like [it was] in slow motion. It was shocking,” said Nejjie Morales, who lives two blocks from the crane.
She shot photos and video of the crane before and after and shared them on Twitter. “I have never seen a crane look like that before.”
On Friday, workers from All Crane Rental in Tampa arrived at the construction site at Vice apartments and removed one of the damaged parts of the crane, the boom, that was hanging over the Metromover tracks at the College/Bayside stop, said Mitch McDonald, general manager of All Crane Rental of Florida.
McDonald said he wasn’t surprised that people downtown continue marveling at the crane.
“Watching something that was demolished by a hurricane probably seems pretty fascinating to people so they have to stop and take pictures,” said McDonald, as he watched his crews work Tuesday afternoon. “This is a tourist area, so there’s probably been thousands of pictures taken so far.”
And they are being shared with hashtags such as #downtownmiami, #hurricaneirma, #miami and #irma.
This week, downtown life continued returning to its usual frenetic hum.
On Monday, Miami Dade College reopened Building 8 at the Wolfson Campus, which was near the crane.
“We were able to get our building official in the morning, and we reopened Building 8,” said Juan Mendieta, spokesman for Miami Dade College. “Luckily, we didn’t have to move any of the classes from there. We were ready, but we didn’t have to.”
The Metromover College/Bayside station also reopened.
Austin Applegate gazed up at the crane during her lunch break from nearby Miami Dade College.
“Might as well see it,” she said, while munching on a taco.
“I watched it on TV. It doesn’t look as bad in person,” she said. But she added that she hadn’t seen anything like it before.
The downtown Miami crane was one of three damaged during Irma. Another crane at Gran Paraiso, 660 NE 31st St. in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, was safely secured and nearby tenants forced to evacuate were told they could return Monday, according to The Miami Herald.
The third damaged tower crane, situated at Auberge Beach Residences and Spa at 2200 N. Ocean Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, has also been removed, according to a spokeswoman for Moss Construction.
RELATED STORIES:
Inquiries just starting after cranes collapse during Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma spared real estate market big damage, caused minor construction, closing delays
.ss-blurb-fblike{
padding-left:10px;
}
.ss-blurb-fblike-heading {
font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;
font-weight: bold;
}
Like us on Facebook
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.10&appId=728754867160252”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
