The Triangle

Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Bob Reynolds

The Penn Coach Yard chimney, a Drexel landmark located next to 30th Street Station at the Pennsylvania Railroad Steam Plant, will be demolished by Controlled Demolition, Inc. after 70 years of existence.

UPDATE: According to Karina Romero, an Amtrak spokesman, the originally planned Sunday Nov. 8 demolition date was chosen prematurely and an official date has not been chosen.

CDI will implode the chimney, colloquially called "The Shaft" and now owned by Amtrak, using dynamite and will let it fall into a narrow gap between the SEPTA tracks and the CSX high-line viaduct. Traffic through SEPTA and Amtrak, as well as local streets and the Schuylkill Expressway, will be temporarily stopped for the implosion.

The Shaft has been part of the Drexel scenery for over 70 years. It can be seen towering through the sky anywhere on campus. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the term "Drexel Shaft" previously referred to The Flame of Knowledge, the fountain outside of North Hall (formerly located in the Korman Quad). A 1983 issue of The Triangle satirically depicted a man brandishing the fountain's Shaft with the caption "may the Shaft be with you," referencing "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi."

Students began to call the chimney "the Shaft" in the mid-1980s, a term also used to reference Drexel's bureaucratic administration; i.e., they "got the Drexel Shaft" with financial aid or scheduling.

Dean of Students Dr. David A. Ruth wrote in an e-mail, "I do know that students refer to that structure as 'the shaft,' and so I am pleased to know that this structure is being demolished."

The Shaft's infamy reached The Triangle again with the comic "Adventures of The Drexel Shaft," published in the mid-2000s. Additionally, the Wikipedia page on Drexel University has an entire section devoted to the Shaft and there is an objective definition of it on Urbandictionary.com, which currently has 48 "thumbs ups" and eight "thumbs downs."

On iDrink.com, there is a recipe for an alcoholic beverage called the Drexel Shaft. To make a Drexel Shaft, mix 4 oz of grain alcohol, 2 oz of Jack Daniels, 1 oz of Sambuca, 3 oz of OVAL Vodka, and 1 oz of Jagermeister together and serve chilled.

Mike Jones, a local resident and member of Powelton Village, wrote in an e-mail that it was "shortsighted" to demolish the chimney and that it "would make a fantastic club, museum, [or studio space]." He suggested a use similar to the Tate Modern Museum in London, which features international post 1900 art.

CDI is an experienced demolition company run by the Loizeaux family in Phoenix, Md. They have previously imploded the Kennecott Copper Smelter Stack in Magna, Utah with great success. Ralph N. Orgill, the facilities manager at the plant, was pleased with CDI's performance.

"...CDI's implosion of our chimney, the tallest corbeled, tapered concrete chimney ever to be 'imploded' in the world, was perfect," Orgill wrote in a review on CDI's Web site. "The special effects show, which [they] put on for the town's 'Implosion Picnic,' was terrific! There is no question in my mind that the Loizeaux Family is the best in the world at what it does ..."

This article has been corrected.

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