A local landmark water tower that has stood along I-295 and near Sesame Place for decades is coming down.
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Demolition crews began their task Tuesday to tear down the 145-foot-tall water tower that features Sesame Place characters in Middletown Township.
On Wednesday morning, two sets of crews in baskets attached to cranes were cutting away parts of the water tower piece by piece using torches.
The water tower has been emptied and will be nothing more than a memory soon.
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Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority spokesperson Brian Dries told LevittownNow.com the demolition is expected to take two months.
Contractor Haines and Kibblehouse was hired by the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority to remove the water tower for $174,250. Dries said the company was the only bidder.
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The tower came under the ownership of the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority after it purchased Middletown Township’s water authority about two decades ago.
The outside space on the tower was rented to Sesame Place for advertisement of the nearby theme park.
The light-blue tower that is 168-feet wide was plastered with Sesame Place advertising in 1993. First, it was painted and then in 2002 more than 700 vinyl pieces were stuck to the tower, according to archival news reports from 6abc and the Bucks County Courier Times.
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At the time it was installed, the water tower’s 74-foot images of Elmo, Big Bird, and other Sesame Street characters was the nation’s largest vinyl-wrapped water tower.
Between 2009 and 2011, the tower got another facelift with the theme park’s latest marketing materials, according to Google Maps images.
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While there are several water towers in the Levittown area, the Sesame Place-branded tower is the only one with advertising pasted on it.
The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority serves numerous towns in Bucks County, including Hulmeville Borough, Langhorne Borough, Langhorne Manor Borough, Penndel Borough, and Middletown Township.
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