For a Cowboys franchise that’s always played under a hole in its roof, Wednesday marks the beginning of the end. At 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, the team’s new Arlington stadium will commence installation of the first piece of the monumental arch truss structure.

In numbers that I can’t come close to conceiving, the roof will include twin 17-foot wide by 35-foot deep arch box trusses weighing 3,255 tons each and spanning 1,225 feet, creating the longest single-span roof structure in the world. An 84-foot long, 180,000-pound arch truss section will be lifted into place at the stadium’s southwest abutment, 128 feet beyond the perimeter of the stadium seating bowl structure. The arch truss bears on a 64,000-pound cast steel arch pin assembly atop the concrete abutment.

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Translation: It’s friggin’ huge. But don’t worry, purists. Upon completion, the retractable roof, when open, will still provide a hole. Guess even in a gaudy new stadium, God will still want to watch his favorite team. --Richie Whitt

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