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.
Walking down memory lane - the old Grace access road. Sparky met Billy Ward today and watched the 995 in action. Serious cleanup after Mickey and Ken
The access road
Here is Billy Ward working away
scooping
and moving
and dropping
more scooping
moving and dropping
Meet a recent addition of the team: Billy Ward
Then walking down the road to the old Grace ramp
closer and more memories
sort of a peg-leg Grace
And in the background, Michael's praying 1250 on the right, Mickey's new Copco on the right and in the middle the 995 is doing some scooping and moving and dropping from the river bottom to the barge
And to the left is the new Mt. Pleasant observation pier with floor girders spanning the old Pierman pier bases
Back on the Cooper RIver - Michael's praying 1250
Mickey's new Copco and to the right, the 995 doing its scopping, lifting and dropping
When the 995 scoops up a mouthful of stuff you can't even see the boom
then slowing the 995's neck appears
with a mouth full of debris
rotates
and drops - just like Billy does it
Now walking back up the access road
There is Billy still scooping, moving and dropping
rotating
and dropping
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer