Oklahoma City Bombing

At 7:01 a.m. Tuesday, Dennis Garland thought he would burst out crying as the Murrah Building tumbled to the ground.

"I sure wanted to cry - but I held it in. I think I'll go home and have a good cry there," the Oklahoma City man said.

Garland, 45, was among the estimated 2,000 to 3,000 spectators who decided that watching the implosion on television or sleeping in or doing something else on a cloudy Tuesday morning wasn't acceptable.

They had to be there.

"I felt like Oklahoma City was finally free," said Hartwell McNeely, a retired worker who years ago hauled off debris for a local wrecking company.

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Elaine Harris of Edmond noted that the implosion "happened so quickly, it gave me goose bumps." And "I've still got goose bumps," she said about 15 minutes after the demolition.

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Margaret Luck and her daughter from DeSoto, Texas, got up early Tuesday anddrove to Oklahoma City. "This is part of history. But I'm glad it's over. I'm numb," Luck said.

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They had gone to their grandson's graduation in Holton, Kan., and were coming through Oklahoma City on their way back to their Houston home. George Gurley, 65, and wife Barbara, 60, decided to stop Monday night and see the Murrah implosion Tuesday morning. "It's such a sad thing. How could anybody have blown up the building in the first place?" asked George Gurley.

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Rick Yohn, a steelworker from Tulsa, took a comp day on Tuesday to travelwest on the turnpike." Oklahoma City is our sister city. Heck, this could have been us," he said of the federal building bombing. After the Murrah building came down, Yohn said, "I hope this eases everybody's pain."

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Victor Oswald of El Reno sat on top of his vehicle parked on the east side of Broadway between NW 4 and NW 5. He had been there since 1 a.m. Tuesday waiting for the federal building demolition. "I'm not morbid, or just overly curious. I believe that I needed to be here. We need to go on," he said.

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Sam Ott, 44, a lawyer who works only blocks away, nodded his head in satisfaction and strode off to his office as the remainder of the building came down.

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Paula Lombard said she had felt the original explosion from her home in Luther, about 25 miles away. "The people don't have to stare at it anymore and see the heartache. Now, it's only in the people's faces," she said.

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Donna Murray, her husband, Mark, and daughter, Melissa, were at the implosion. "I don't want to see it standing anymore. If you see it standing, it reminds you of the tragedy," Donna Murray said. Added husband Mark, "We have to get over this. I'd like to see our flags fly at full staff again."

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Brenda Kerley came downtown before taking her 7-year-old son, Tyler, to school. "I cried," she said of the implosion.