Columbia's iconic giant fire hydrant 'Busted Plug' says goodbye to its downtown home.

Downtown Columbia has a lot of traffic jams, but there's never been one caused by a four-story fire hydrant before.

Until the morning of Thursday, Feb. 23, that is.

"Busted Plug," a huge piece of public art in the shape of a fire hydrant, stopped traffic shortly before noon as it made its way from Taylor Street onto Bull Street on the back of a flat-bed truck.

The 675,000-pound sculpture by Columbia artist Blue Sky had stood along Taylor Street in the front of a parking lot for more than 20 years until it came down the morning of Feb 23. It was forced to move because of requests from a Maryland-based investment company that purchased the historic apartment building adjacent to the parking lot.

The job of moving the massive fire hydrant fell to local construction company McClam & Associates Inc., based in Little Mountain in Newberry County northwest of Columbia. Workers positioned cranes near the sculpture on Feb. 19 and work continued on moving the sculpture until the morning of Feb. 23, when it was loaded onto the truck.

City of Columbia police cars escorted the truck as it started it slow movement from Taylor Street onto nearby Bull Street. Workers had to be lifted up in cherry pickers to carefully lift utility lines as the hydrant passed under them.

Once the hydrant left downtown, it headed for its new temporary home on property owned by McClam & Associates off I-20.

Unveiled in 2001, the sculpture was part of...