Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

All you want to know about Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

Alfred P. Murrah building four days before its demolition
Alfred P. Murrah building during demolition
Aerial view of Alfred P. Murrah building after bombing
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building being demolished. Survivor Tree is visible on the right.

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a United States Federal Government complex located at 200 N.W. 5th Street in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. The Murrah building was the target of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995.

The federal building was designed by architect Wendell Locke of Locke, Wright and Associates [1], and constructed using reinforced concrete in 1977 at a cost of $14.5 million. The building was named for federal judge Alfred P. Murrah, an Oklahoma native and opened on March 2, 1977.

By the 1990s, the building contained regional offices for the Social Security Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The building also contained recruiting offices for both the Army and the Marine Corps. It housed approximately 550 employees. [2] In May 1994, the General Accounting Office recommended the removal of the day care center from the building.[3]

The remains of the building were imploded a month after the attack, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial was built on the site. The Federal government began construction of a new building to replace the Murrah Building in late 2000. This new building was placed just to the north of where the Murrah Building had been located, and incorporated a number of security measures implemented after the bombing of the Murrah Building.[4]

Contents

Bombing

Main article: Oklahoma City bombing

At 9:02 A.M. on April 19, 1995, a Ryder rental truck bomb containing approximately 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and diesel fuel was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, destroying a third of the building and causing severe damage to several other buildings located nearby. During McVeigh's trial, a witness testified that McVeigh claimed to have specifically arranged the explosives in order to form a shaped charge.[5] As a result of the massive explosion, 168 people were killed and over 800 others were injured.[6] It was the largest terrorist attack on American soil in history before the September 11 attacks. Timothy McVeigh would later be found guilty of the attack and sentenced to death.

Demolition

Rescue and recovery efforts were concluded at 11:50 p.m. on May 4, with the bodies of all but three victims recovered.[7] For safety reasons, the building was to be demolished shortly afterward. However, McVeigh's attorney, Stephen Jones, called for a motion to delay the demolition until the defense team could examine the site in preparation for the trial.[8] More than a month after the bombing, at 7:01 a.m. on May 23, the Murrah Federal building was demolished.[7] The final three bodies, those of two credit union employees and a customer, were recovered.[9] For several days after the building's demolition, trucks hauled 800 tons of debris a day away from the site. Some of the debris was used as evidence in the conspirators' trials, incorporated into parts of memorials, donated to local schools, and sold to raise funds for relief efforts.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Architect Says Bombed OK Building was Solidly Built", Transcript # 635-35, 7:07 pm ET, Interview by Linden Soles with Wendell Locke., CNN (1995, April 19). 
  2. ^ "Car Bombing In Oklahoma City Jolts the Nation", All Things Considered, NPR (1995, April 19). 
  3. ^ http://www.outpost-of-freedom.com/okc0511.htm
  4. ^ "New Oklahoma City Federal Building: Groundbreaking Set for Tuesday". United States General Services Administration. Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
  5. ^ Thomas, Jo (1997-04-30). "For First Time, Woman Says McVeigh Told of Bomb Plan", The New York Times. Retrieved on 27 February 2008. 
  6. ^ Clive Irving, ed., In Their Name (New York: Random House, 1995); ISBN 0-679-44825-X.
  7. ^ a b (1995) in Irving, Clive (ed.): In Their Name, First Edition, New York City: Random House. ISBN 0-679-44825-X. 
  8. ^ a b Linenthal, Edward (2001). The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513672-1. 
  9. ^ "CNN Interactive". Federal Building Demolition. Retrieved on February 1, 2007.

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_P._Murrah_Federal_Building"

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