Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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. 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]
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.[3]
Contents |
[edit] 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 the building and causing severe damage to several other buildings located nearby. The focused damage produced by the bomb had the characteristics of either a shaped charge or EFP (explosively formed penetrator) device.[4] As a result 168 people were killed and over 800 others were injured. 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.
[edit] Demolition
Rescue and recovery efforts were concluded at 11:50 p.m. on May 4, with the bodies of all but three victims recovered.[5] 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.[6] More than a month after the bombing, at 7:01 a.m. on May 23, the Murrah Federal building was demolished.[5] The final three bodies, those of two credit union employees and a customer, were recovered.[7] 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.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Car Bombing In Oklahoma City Jolts the Nation", All Things Considered, NPR, 1995, April 19.
- ^ New Oklahoma City Federal Building: Groundbreaking Set for Tuesday. United States General Services Administration. Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
- ^ For First Time, Woman Says McVeigh Told of Bomb Plan - New York Times
- ^ a b (1995) in Irving, Clive (ed.): In Their Name, First Edition, New York City: Random House. ISBN 0-679-44825-X.
- ^ a b Linenthal, Edward (2001). The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513672-1.
- ^ CNN Interactive. Federal Building Demolition. Retrieved on February 1, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is at coordinates Coordinates:
- Photos of the Murrah building before the bombing
- Video of the demolition of the Murrah building
- The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh by Gore Vidal
