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.

December 2, 2006:
Sparky restores our bridge fix

Sparky and a group from his church just arrived back from working on restoring some of the Katrina destroyed houses in the lower part of Mississippi

Here is our bridge fix for this week. From Singapore, it looks like all the superstructure of the Pearman Bridge has been unbuilt while the Grace superstructure is waiting for Sparky. The end is drawing near. I talked with Michael Hebb and Ken Canty over Thanksgiving from China - I needed a serious bridge fix. Over the next couple of months, the remaining Grace truss will be removed, Mickey and Ken will work their implosion magic on the Pearman piers while Michale, Jimmy Grier (welcome back), Chris Vocci, Manny, Carlos, Nugget and a few unnamed others will finish the job.

A few drive-by photos of the remaining Grace truss

The supporting piers - built last month and to be removed perhaps this month

and just a skeleton remains.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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