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The largest object ever recovered from the wreck site of the legendary Titanic is being installed at the Tropicana Resort & Casino as part of the seven-month run of Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. The “Big Piece” is a portion of Titanic’s hull that measures approximately 23 feet by 12 feet and weighs approximately 15 tons. As part of its installation, this massive piece of the doomed ship will be uncrated and hoisted from a truck into position for the exhibition. A team of specialized riggers will set the piece in position with the help of a huge steel gantry.

The “Big Piece” will arrive at the Tropicana Pavilion at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 9, 2005. The enormous artifact left Houston, Texas March 3, 2005 and is currently making its way to Las Vegas.

RMS Titanic, Inc. recovered the “Big Piece” during a 1998 expedition. The section of Titanic’s hull is from her starboard side and contains huge steel plates, thousands of rivets and portholes from first-class cabins C-79 and C-81.

The deep-diving submersible Nautile first set out to recover the “Big Piece” in 1996. The piece was rigged with cables and connected to lift bags to raise it to surface. The piece ascended to within 215 feet of the ocean surface before a sudden storm caused cables to fail, sending the piece back down two and a half miles to the bottom of the sea.

RMS Titanic, Inc. launched a second expedition to recover the piece in 1998. This time the recovery effort was a success and the “Big Piece” was slowly pulled from the North Atlantic Ocean.

After resting on the bottom of the sea since April 15, 1912, the “Big Piece” underwent an extensive conservation process that included an electrolytic bath to arrest corrosion and remove salts.

The massive piece of Titanic’s hull is one of 300 artifacts that will be on display in Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, which opens on March 25th at the Tropicana.