The “Leaning Tower of Dallas” may not be the most negative story in the city’s history, but the rest of the country is once again raising its collective eyebrow.

The saga began, as stories about building implosions often do, on Valentine’s Day. The developer planned an implosion near 75 and Haskell to make room for a $2.5 billion mixed use project.

You’ll see in that article, Dallas Area Rapid Transit was ready. They installed seismographs in the tunnel under the building and send in inspectors right after the implosion to make sure the trains were safe to start running again.

Except the building didn’t, technically, fall. Because of our doggone American know-how, the building was too strong, and the part with the elevator shaft was still standing.

Naturally, people started showing up to take pictures. Many people, including a lion, showed up to get a picture of themselves holding the building up.

Dallas police had warned everyone: Don’t park on the frontage road of 75, and the field next to the building is private property with ample signs warning people not to trespass.

So that’s where I parked.

In my defense, the TV stations had all parked in the same area. Technically, we weren’t blocking the road. We had the sense to pull off into driveways.

As more people started showing up, though, people were less understanding of the “No Trespassing” signs in the field next to the building. They started wandering right up to the fence.

The demolition company had planned to start hacking away promptly at 9 a.m. They expected to finish about noon.

Shortly after 9, though, people started getting restless. The wrecking ball had moved into place, but the operator got out of the cab and a group of employees started discussing the plan.

“Say,” People started asking each other. “Maybe the ball should be bigger.”

You can sort of see it in that picture above. It’s near the top of the building, at the end of the crane. The light colored thing that’s the same size as a tire.

The crowd became concerned.

That gentleman had brought his son. Except he wasn’t holding his son. He had handed, and I swear I’m not making this up, the child off to some woman he hadn’t, technically, met:

Luckily, DART was back on schedule because it was hard to find a parking space. They said trains wouldn’t have to be delayed again because the developer was apparently planning to demolish the building using a spoon. Not a larger spatula, mind you, a spoon.

Police did finally shut down one lane of the frontage road of 75 because more and more people kept showing up. They did have to start ticketing people who were double-parked.

Once noon had come and gone, the wrecking ball had just knocked a few holes in the building.

Four words for the #LeaningTowerofDallas. @NBCDFW: https://t.co/GGI5yUqi7b pic.twitter.com/FEAkUUZ8EC

— Meredith Yeomans (@YeomansNBC5) February 24, 2020

Turns out the demolition company might have benefited from a bigger ball. OSHA had declared the li’l 5,600 pound ball was the biggest allowed because of the size of the crane.

So the demolition is taking slightly longer than three hours. Tuesday night, the company explained that this may actually take several days. Or weeks.

The company says they’re working diligently with the wrecking ball. They’ve also drilled holes into the side of the building and started demolition at the base of the building.

On the plus side, I did get to interview that lion.

But like Dealey Plaza, the Leaning Tower of Dallas has become an unexpected tourist attraction.

One guy, a painter, had set up an easel and art supplies. He had come out for the implosion and returned several times.

He was working on his 15th portrait, hoping to turn them into an exhibition.

He had set out to capture moments in time during this craze. If you look just to the right of the crane in his painting, you’ll see a small hole. He said that natural damage helped capture moments in time from this phenomenon. People were taking pictures in poses they had never tried before; just in front of his easel is a small ditch, and onlookers laid a piece of plywood over the water. People had to use their own ingenuity to figure out how to get across the water.

And once again, Fort Worth showed up to make everything right.

We Took Care of It.@LeaningTower #leaningtowerofdallas pic.twitter.com/VGpc8AUKUX

— Fort Worth Police (@fortworthpd) February 25, 2020