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.

Mar 26, 2007: Drilling and teardown

The worksite: The Grace pier foundation, Manny's crane and Mickey's Copco - ready to finish

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A closer view. The little red inverted cups protect the holes from rain water and debris associated with drilling other holes

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Manny in the driving position - with his other cap

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Preparing to lift the Copco, rotate it 180 degrees and start drilling the other end

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Getting ready to lift

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Lifting

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Setting up the drilling tower

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Almost in position

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Reading for drilling. Click to watch the rotate and position (3.7 MB mpg)

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and drilling away.

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Finished

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Then Manny does it again - moving the Copco from the Grace foundation to Sparky

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Rotating

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and down. Now click to watch watch Manny lift the Copco and move Sparky

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and a last look at the worksite

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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