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.
Home Meeting St East Bay Drum Island Mt. PLeasant Pearman Stories Grace Stories Implosions Enginnering Insights Stories of unbuilders Learning Links Bridge Video Bridge Blog Unbuilding Archive All Unbuilding Segments Building the Ravenel Bridge Photo Essays About me
August 30, 2006: Cleaning up with Michael and Timmy

The end is near. Sparky found Michael and Timmy cleaning up a bit at the Navy Yard. Timmy and Michael have the distinction of being the two who have been hammering away on the Grace piers. Michael with his high reach 1250 and Timmy with his low-reach 325 (or maybe 350?). Timmy is close to finishing up in Charleston and will be heading to Jacksonville. That leaves Chris Vocci and Michael for the final final cleanup in Charleston. Now to figure out how to have them come to Singapore and run a few unbuilding classes.
Here is a lonely excavator, clean Navy Yard and maybe a scrap metal ship?

Perhaps this is a scrap ship for loading. But nevertheless, the clouds are simply beautiful

Not much of Grace or Pearman to be seen

Here is Timmy demonstrating to Michael how to move dirt without a 325

And clearly Timmy has quite a bit of experience - Look who is wearing the gloves

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

_