Tuesday marked the beginning of the end for the old Pacific Gas & Electric Co. power plant in the city's Hunters Point neighborhood as workers began dismantling the 77-year-old complex.

Some of the people who grew up breathing the smoke that poured out from the plant were part of the crew that helped tear it down.

The first 80,000-pound piece of the 256-foot tall smokestack came down Tuesday.

"People been getting sick from this for a very long time, and it should have been taken out or closed down," said demolition crew member Jerry Ogans. "But now we all got a chance to take it up out of here."

Erwin Mackey was also member of the plant demolition crew.

"I would like to think that the next 20 years, kids could come out here and play and not be in harm's way. So, if that could occur, that would be the ultimate goal right there," Mackey said.

For years, the plant pumped out pollution that filled the lungs of the people who lived nearby.

PG&E shut down the plant in May, after expanding transmission lines on the Peninsula that could meet San Francisco's demand for power.

Neighbor Carolena Williams recalled, "There was a lot of smog in the area, and a lot of people that have asthma. I stay here in West Point, and a lot of people are getting sick from asthma, and there's a lot of mold around. It was very bad for our health."

Over the next year and a half, the building will disappear.

In its place will be housing and what Mayor Gavin Newsom called a "green business park."

Newsom said the idea is "to focus on moving away from an industrial polluting past to a more sustainable, green future."