Wheeling, WV - Highway officials tentatively plan the demolition for Sept. 12, and say it will be taken down by implosion.

They'll stop all traffic, and set charges on the structural supports.

"Basically it's the back channel so there's no freight traffic on that project," says Dan Sikora, acting district engineer for the West Virginia Division of Highways, District 6. "So they'll cut the bridge and shoot it down into the back channel and then pick it up off barges and set it up on the ground and cut it up."

It should be dramatic and historic, but most of all, they say it will be "quick."

"We will be stopping traffic on the new Bridgeport Bridge and also I-70 momentarily, like ten or 15 minutes when the shot occurs," said Sikora.

"It will be announced when the shot's going to go off, so I'm sure we'll have sightseers."

They say the job will cost almost $700,000.

The demolition contractor is the Joseph B. Fay Co. of Tarentum, Pa.