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.

June 24, 2006: A surprise from Julie Hussey and SCDOT

We only have a few aerial photos, mostly from the time the Ravenel Bridge opened. But SCDOT, Julie and Randi have provided us with aerial views of the entire worksite taken every two months. Here are the segments

2005
In the beginning
August 1, 2005

Building Stonehenge
Octobert 1, 2005

Dropping the Town Creek spans
December 1, 2005

2006
Gone are the
Town Creek main spans
February 1, 2006

Gone are the
Cooper River main spans
April 1, 2006

The Cooper River:
only piers
June 1, 2006

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C. Frank Starmer

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