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.

Home Meeting St East Bay Drum Island Mt. PLeasant Pearman Stories Grace Stories Implosions Enginnering Insights Stories of unbuilders Learning Links Bridge Video Bridge Blog Unbuilding Archive All Unbuilding Segments Building the Ravenel Bridge Photo Essays About me

June 30, 2006: Sparky and Mickey and Ken. Gone is the C-4 Substructure

C-4 Base real time (2.8 Mb quicktime)
C-4 Base slow motion (8.4 Mb quicktime)
C-4 Base real time stream (0.8 Mb quicktime)
C-4 Base slow motion stream (2.4 Mb quicktime)

The worksite - Cousin Arthur watching over P-8

Our reference photo with pier labels

Another view of the Grace and Pearman worksites - P-9 in the foreground and P-8 in the background

Yet another view

C-2 and P-8 silently watching

Michael's 1250 saying a final prayer

Mickey's John Henry - saying a final prayer on the C-3 foundation

C-4 substructure ready to blow

Before

2:58:21 Ignition

Ignition sequence from Video frames

T = 0.000 sec T = 0.033 sec

T = 0.067 sec T = 0.100 sec

T = 0.133 sec T = 0.167 sec

T = 0.200 sec T = 0.233 sec

T = 0.267 sec T = 0.300 sec

T = 0.333 sec T = 0.367 sec

T = 0.400 sec T = 0.433 sec

T = 0.467 sec T = 0.500 sec

T = 0.533 sec T = 0.567 sec

T = 0.600 sec T = 0.633 sec

T = 0.667 sec T = 0.700 sec

T = 0.733 sec T = 0.767 sec

T = 0.800 sec T = 0.833 sec

2:58:22 Liftoff

2:58:23

2:58:24

2:58:25

2:58:26

2:58:29

2:58:30

2:58:31

2:58:37

And back home

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer