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 31 2005: Trucking along to the Hanover overpass

The Pearman off-ramp and Hanover overpass

From Nassau - clean road and another segment of the Pearman on-ramp is absent

Looking down the Grace off ramp at the next segment of the Pearman on-ramp to go

Looking up the old Grace reversible on-off ramp - today a pile of rubble. Tomorrow it will be separated into concrete for recycling and rebar for recycling

A look at the old and new - Grace, Pearman and in the distance, the Ravenel towers - then a walk back

The Hanover overpass - Pearman off-ramp interchange

Cleaning up at the Nassau intersection with Lee

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

C. Frank Starmer

_