Smyrna, Del. ? Shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday, a backhoe yanked a chain attached to the Delaware Correctional Center’s gallows, and the macabre relic of this state’s 341-year-old history with the death penalty crashed to the ground.

State officials could have quietly disassembled the rickety wooden structure — 23 steps, a trap door and a cross beam from which to hang a noose. But this device, used in the last hanging execution in the United States in 1996, carries too much symbolism to just do that, they decided.

So under a still sky highlighted with wispy clouds, they gathered a crowd of reporters who watched as a method of execution was put to death. The demolition is scheduled to be completed today.

In 1986, the First State had changed its preferred method of execution to lethal injection, but permitted those already sentenced to death the option of hanging. That was how Billy Bailey died on these gallows on Jan. 25, 1996, leaving two other inmates with the possibility of hanging.

William H. Flamer chose lethal injection and was killed five days later, and James W. Riley refused to choose. Then, on May 19, Riley was resentenced to life in prison and the gallows became obsolete.

Delaware’s changeover to lethal injection leaves New Hampshire and Washington as the only states in the country that conduct hangings, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, an information clearinghouse based in Washington, D.C.

In Washington state, where the last hanging was in 1994, it is an option available to death row inmates, though lethal injection is the standard. In New Hampshire, where the last hanging was held in 1939, hanging is only used if lethal injection cannot be done.

Most states use lethal injection.

The gallows at the Delaware Correctional Center in Smyrna, Del., are shown as workers prepare to demolish the structure. Dismantling of the gallows began Tuesday.