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.
Setting up over the triangle section
Lift bar cables for our acrobats
Lift bar in place
Carlos setting up
Nugget setting up
Carlos starts his cut
Nugget joins the party
a closer view of Carlos (left) and Nugget (right)
From under
with the Ravenel Bridge looking on
The completed cut on the far side
Nugget cutting on the far side
and Carlos cutting on the near side
A good view of cutting above the temporary supports
Manny starts his lift Click to watch Manny do his thing
up
Up and rotate
and slowly lower
and down
with a bit of help from Carlos
a gentle push
and down she comes
and down
and down
more rotation
down
and rotate
and down
Touchdown!
Carlos is pleased
A gentle push by Michael
another gentle push
and the triangle is now a member of flatland
After
and a better view of what's been done to date
and what is next
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer