Thousands of people gathered to watch as one of the blocks of the Red Road flats, in the north of the city, was demolished.
Clouds of dust burst out of the destroyed building, which was 'blown down' in a controlled explosion.
It took less than five seconds.
The flats at 153 - 213 Petershill Drive were the first of the condemned towers to be demolished.
It took around 275 kilos of explosives to reduce the steel-framed block to rubble.
When they were built in the mid Sixties, the Red Road flats were briefly claimed to be the highest in Europe at 292ft (89m), though the record was actually held by a development in Soviet Russia.
They were designed to hold 4,700 people but now just 300 remain there, after decades of decline.
Because of the building's steel frame, the explosion was different from a typical concrete residential tower block demolition.
The bottom storeys of the building remain, to be knocked down by machinery.
The demolition is part of regeneration plans by the flats' owners, Glasgow Housing Assocation (GHA) and partners.
Many former tenants have been rehoused locally in some of the 259 new homes built by GHA.
Around 2000 people were temporarily evacuated from their homes for the demolition as a safety precaution.
When the flats were built, between 1964 and 1969, they were seen as a cost effective solution to the city's overcrowding problem.
But they were recommended for demolition following a decline in demand and popularity, alongside high investment and running costs.
Around 6000 tonnes of steel and rubble left over will be crushed, graded and re-used and it is expected that 99% of the building can be recycled. The clear-up will take several months.
Four of the blocks at Red Road are still occupied and the remaining seven blocks in the area are to be demolished by 2017.
In March 2010, three Russian asylum seekers who had been living in the flats jumped to their deaths from one of the towers.
In 2006, director Andrea Arnold used the flats as the setting for her Bafta-winning film Red Road.
matty.sutton@eveningtimes.co.uk
FORMER residents as well as architecture fans gathered to watch the historic demolition.
Finlay McKay, 42, was born in the tower block and took his three children, above, to see it come down.
Cara, 9, Connor, 6, and Taylor, 8, stood with their dad, who lived on the 25th floor of the block for 23 years until 1991.
The firefighter, who now lives in Swinton in the East End, said: "We always explained to the children where we were born and brought up.
"Now we live in a house with a garden and they think homes are all like that."
He said Red Road was a "brilliant" place to live.
Finlay added: "It was fantastic, I wouldn't change it for the world.
"It has made me, and I have still got my pals from there that I have had all my life."
Also watching was Chris Leslie, 38, from Dennistoun, an artist who worked on Red Road Underground, a project to document the flats before they were destroyed.
He said: "We were just so lucky to get access to it before it came down.
"It must be very different for people who lived there because it is their life's memories that were there."
