Did you ever wonder who so many concrete coaling towers remain in place, straddling busy main lines long after steam has disappeared from the rails? These structures were built from yards and yards of reinforced concrete, thick walls with steel bars binding the concrete together so they could hold hundreds of tons of coal. Removing them would take days, if not weeks, and would sever the vital rail arteries that they straddle. Here the coaling tower in the yard in Reading, Pennsylvania, a survivor of the Reading Company, is fighting its demise. The wrecking ball has been slamming into it for days. There’s no killer blow to bring the structure down, just a lot of chipping away small chunks of concrete, many of which are still held together by steel bars as they break away from the main tower, leaving them hanging from what’s left of the tower.
