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 15, 2006: Next section

Here is an overview of starting the unbuilding procedure for the next section

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Setting up over the triangle section

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Lift bar cables for our acrobats

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Lift bar in place

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Carlos setting up

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Nugget setting up

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Carlos starts his cut

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Nugget joins the party

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a closer view of Carlos (left) and Nugget (right)

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From under

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with the Ravenel Bridge looking on

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The completed cut on the far side

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Nugget cutting on the far side

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and Carlos cutting on the near side

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A good view of cutting above the temporary supports

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Manny starts his lift Click to watch Manny do his thing

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up

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Up and rotate

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and slowly lower

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and down

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with a bit of help from Carlos

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a gentle push

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and down she comes

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and down

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and down

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more rotation

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down

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and rotate

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and down

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Touchdown!

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Carlos is pleased

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A gentle push by Michael

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another gentle push

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and the triangle is now a member of flatland

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After

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and a better view of what's been done to date

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and what is next

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

C. Frank Starmer

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