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.
The worksite - felled columns to be unbuilt. Carlos in the foreground and Robbie in the cutting position
What Cashman-Testa buildeth can be unbuildeth. Here, Stan, Robbie and Carlos are looking upward and in deep thought
and Manny in the ready position
Like felled trees, here are the supports for Robbie to unbuild.
Robbie starting another cut
and cutting
From the roof of the parking garage - this is the scene
Then on to the Mt Pleasant worksite - a drive-by view of a lonely Grace
A view of the port from the observation pier - soon to be enjoyed by everyone
Here is a completed section of the rebar grid - ready for the Bidwell pouring machine
A crane crossing
and a view under cousin Arthur's structure
and an evening sunset
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer