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.
I think it is afternoon - about 14:44 - my Singapore time, East coast time and Sparky camera times are off by 12 hours or so - but we'll straighten this out. Here it is clear that Manny and the ironworkers are unbuilding a 2nd section of the Grace superstructure - so I'm guessing this is afternoon. Afterall, Sparky has to have lunch some time. So here is Manny
and an overview of progress to date (but which date, I'm uncertain). The triangle section is gone (on the right) which I think was done Friday morning
and Carlos, chillin a bit
and a big smile from Stan
and a small smile from Nugget with fuzz continuing to grow from his chin
Setting up the cables to stablize the next section
and of course, a Sparky art photo
and this one is even better. Gives a good idea of the boom length
Nugget starts cutting to attach one set of cables
while Carlos is fiddling around with the other cable
More work on cable placement
Carlos wrapping the cable through a hole at the top
and securing it- and I'm wrong - there is a lift bar!
being observed from the Sea Breeze
Not sure what is happening here
Cutting the base of the vertical truss
and its free
and the other side is free (Stan's work?)
Now Nugget (closer with the red hard hat) and Carlos (far with the white hard hat) are cutting the cross member
A good view of the cut cross bracing
Nugget cutting
and Carlos cutting
A good view of Carlos
and Nugget cutting
while Joe is doing a divide and conquor cut on the ground sections
Nugget's section appears free
and Manny takes over
A good view ov both free sections
Then Manny starts his "lift and separate" protocol. Click to watch Manny does it again (3 MB mpg)
up and away
as he rotates it east
and slowly lowers it
now in front of the Grace pier
Almost down
then some more rotation
and slowly lowering it
with a small twist (rotation)
and gently lays it down
to its temporary resting place (Joe's unbuilding corner)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer