After the extent of the mishap had been assessed, Slate met with the stockholders and informed them that the damaged section could not be accessed and that the airship was effectively a total loss. He appealed for additional funds to start the project anew, but the "Crash of 29" had occurred two months earlier, eliminating all potential sources of financing.
Two years later, Slate, in the presence of newsreel cameras, climbed onto a catwalk high atop the hangar and, with tears in his eyes, dropped a 50-pound sandbag onto the hull. Rivets popped, ribs buckled and the hull of the airship crumpled to the floor. Slate's grand vision of building ever-bigger airships, capable of transporting 800 to 1,200 passengers, ended with the destruction of the "City of Glendale."
The hull was sold for scrap and sections of the hangar became hay barns in Arizona. Slate moved back to Oregon, where he continued to invent. He died in 1980 at age 99. Its runways too short to accommodate big jets, Grand Central Airport closed in 1955.
