Final Frontier

A worker waits for the New Frontier Hotel & Casino located on the Las Vegas Strip to be imploded on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas. The 16-story hotel tower was felled with over 1,000 pounds of explosives before a group of reporters and bystanders to make way for a multibillion-dollar resort bearing The Plaza brand, which is set to open in 2011.

Fireworks shoot from the New Frontier Hotel & Casino located on the Las Vegas Strip moments before it is imploded on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas. The Last Frontier was the second hotel-casino to open on the Strip, and over its 65 years it played host to such entertainers as Ronald Reagan, Wayne Newton and Siegfried & Roy.

Fireworks shoot from the New Frontier Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip moments before it is imploded on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007 in Las Vegas. The New Frontier earned historical notations by becoming the Strip's first theme casino and hosting Elvis Presley's debut in the city.

Fireworks shoot from the New Frontier Hotel & Casino located on the Las Vegas Strip moments before it is imploded on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas. The low-key gambling hall, which opened as the Last Frontier in 1942 with a cowboy village theme and later embraced the space age before returning to its Wild West roots, had become known for bikini bull riding, cheap hotel rooms and $5 craps before it closed its doors.

Fireworks shoot from the New Frontier Hotel & Casino located on the Las Vegas Strip moments before it is imploded on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007 in Las Vegas. Partners on the new venture on the property said it will include a luxury hotel with about 3,500 rooms, private residences, retail space and a casino bearing The Plaza brand, all set to reach for the highest end of the market.

Fireworks shoot from the New Frontier Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip moments before it is imploded Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas. The destruction of the New Frontier was the latest step in a dramatic, and expensive, facelift for the northern Las Vegas Strip. The Stardust hotel-casino was imploded in March.

The New Frontier Hotel & Casino located on the Las Vegas Strip is imploded on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007 in Las Vegas. The first of Donald Trump's billion-dollar-plus condominium towers is set to open behind the New Frontier site early next year. Casino impresario Steve Wynn plans to open the $2.2 billion Encore in early 2009, and the $2.8 billion Fontainebleau is scheduled to open later in '09.

The New Frontier Hotel & Casino located on the Las Vegas Strip is imploded on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas.