The old Kosciuszko Bridge was demolished in a controlled explosion early on Sunday morning.

The 78-year-old structure was blown up at 8am to make way for the expansion of a new bridge over Newtown Creek, New York.

Video, shot by a reporter from the air, shows the explosive charges detonate along the bridge before thick smoke and dust clouds rise into the air.

Several New Yorkers who lived near the bridge also reported being startled to wake up the sounds and vibrations from the huge explosion.

The old Kosciuszko Bridge demolished in a controlled explosion early on Sunday morning (pictured)

Video, shot by a reporter from the air, shows the explosive charges detonate along the bridge before thick smoke and dust clouds rise into the air.

Traffic on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway was stopped for 10 minutes before the demolition - which Gov. Andrew Cuomo had referred to earlier as 'energetic felling' to the mockery of many New Yorkers.

The New York governor, who was watching the explosion in a boat on Sunday morning, joked about the odd turn of phrase, telling reporters: 'An energetic felling. What does that mean? I don't know.

'I think it's a new politically correct term for implosion but they don't want to say implosion because that makes people nervous so they say an energetic felling.'

Several New Yorkers who lived near the bridge were startled to wake up the sounds of a loud explosion this morning.

On Sunday, the bridge and its traffic issues were wiped out after crews made cuts to the tressles and laid almost 1,000 12-pound charges to take down each span (before the explosion)

Moments later, the charges detonate and the controlled demolition of the old bridge takes place

This morning's explosion occurred just a couple of months after the first stage of demolition, when a 300-foot-long portion of the bridge was lowered by cables onto a pair of barges and carted to a New Jersey recycling center

Cuomo added that he remembered his dad driving them over the bridge as a child, and his father would be nervous about the sheer amount of traffic that accrued on the Kosciuszko Bridge.

On Sunday, the bridge and its traffic issues were wiped out after crews made cuts to the tressles and laid almost 1,000 12-pound charges to take down each span.

This morning's explosion occurred just a couple of months after the first stage of demolition, when a 300-foot-long portion of the bridge was lowered by cables onto a pair of barges and carted to a New Jersey recycling center.

The old Kosciuszko Bridge imploded on Sunday, October 1, in New York

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces that the new Kosciuszko Bridge open to traffic again after the old bridge was imploded on Sunday

An estimated 22 million pounds of steel will be recycled as scrap metal from the bridge by the end of the process.

With the old bridge gone, a new span of bridge is due to open by 2020.

The bridge is named after Polish military engineer Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who fought in the American Revolutionary War. The older truss section opened in 1939.

A new first bridge, initially carrying bidirectional traffic, and named after the original bridge opened earlier this year, and another, a westbound cable-stayed bridge with four lanes and a bike/pedestrian path, will open in 2020.