Demolition crews worked for more than 12 hours Tuesday to safely bring down what was left of Tarrant County's first hospital.
The only remaining wall of the 12-story building at Main and and Morphy streets took longer than expected to demolish.
NBC 5 received word that the wall at the site of the vacant St. Joseph Hospital complex was swaying and that the demolition was halted. When the area, including a nearby roadway was cordoned off, it appeared there was concern over where the wall may come down.
Officials with D.H. Griffin of Texas, the company doing the demolition work, said the lane closure along the 1400 block of South Main Street was expected. The company said it was submitted to the city and done as a precaution only.
It is not clear if the wall was ever unintentionally unstable.
The final facade came down at about 8:30 p.m. Crews had to use three metal cables to pull the building down to keep it from collapsing onto Main Street.
One of the demolition crew members told NBC 5 that everything went as planned.
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St. Joseph's was founded by nuns in 1885 as the county's first hospital. The complex eventually spanned 10 buildings and was bought by John Peter Smith Hospital in 2008 for $5.1 million. The facility has been vacant since 2004.
More than 20,000 bricks were salvaged from the demolition that will be used to build a memorial to commemorate St. Joseph's.
JPS plans to convert the land into a 6-acre green space with a quarter-mile walking track.
NBC 5's Chris Van Horne, Scott Gordon and Omar Villafranca contributed to this report.
