Unbuilding the Grace and Pearman Bridges


For Sparky and myself, curiosity drives passion which in turn fuels our life's engine. Our passion was capturing the story of both unbuilding the Grace (1929 - 2007) and Pearman (1966 - 2007) Bridges and discovering the unbuilders. It takes a lot of passion to track a project from July 2005 until April 2007 - rain, shine, hurricanes or moving to Singapore. We discovered the joy of discovery learning. Ken Canty opened the front door for us - then Steve Testa, Ponch Billingsley and Mickey Rogers opened many side doors. Below are the highlights of what we discovered, who we met and what we learned.

And a reminder from T.S. Eliot (East Coker from the Four Quartets)

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

August 9, 2006: A break from unbuilding an HDB block in Singapore

Its National Day in Singapore, our 4th of July. But this morning some rain.

Here is the worksite at 8am. Another floor gone. A few wall segments remaing on the left and bones on the right.

Michael's sleeping hammer

Jackie's sleeping grapple

Then a bit of sun

Hammers can sleep in the sun - on the left side of the unbuilding project.

and gapples can sleep in the sun on the right side of the unbuilding project.

A closer look at a sleeping hammer

and a sleeping grapple

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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