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.

November 2, 2006: Chris and his Ironworker Acrobats

Cousin Arthur looks a bit lonely - but look at the clouds. A perfect day for a bit of building

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Today Sparky caught Chris and Manny and their cranes with Carlos, Nugget and Stan in the air while Troy is working on the ground. Here is the worksite and the project - add legs to the 2nd Pearman support

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Here is the aerial configuration - Carlos, Nugget and Stan

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You can tell it is Nugget - just look at his chin

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Nugget signaling Manny and his red-crane-that-can

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The base of one of the supports

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Another view

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Here is the other base - a virgin base that will com into action later today

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Here they are - Stan, Carlos and Nugget - we've missed them and they have brought back their smiles and energy.

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Are these guys acrobats, ironworkers are clowns?? - Whatever, they bring a bit of fun to the job

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Here is Stan and his welding cap in the up position while Manny holds the triple support tube array in place.

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The completed Grace support

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Here is our team - Carlos handing the torch while Stan is manhandling the angle iron and Nugget is whispering encouraging words from above. Click to watch this dynamic trio do their thing

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Stan is pleased with the final location of the angle iron brace

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Welding the base of the bracket

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Welding the top of the bracket

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Stan is pretty good at this

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More welding

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Here you see Manny stabilizing the left side of the support and the legless right side

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The brace and the cables attached to Manny's crane

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Here is Nugget placing another part of the suppport

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and Carlos, with a little encouragement from his hammer

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Nugget, standing TALL

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with Stan welding another part of the brace

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Here is a view from the end of the pier - Manny's crane to the left and the man basket to the right.

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Meanwhile, Troy is building another set of legs

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Meet Troy

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Cleaning a weld

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More welding

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while above - Nugget is continuing with Stan and Carlos

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Another view of our dynamic trio

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Here is Stan

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Now Chris and his 7550 are erecting the other triple leg

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Another view of the left leg being positioned

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Here is Stan in his elevator

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Positioning the other set of legs

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and its footing

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Finally - Chris

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Clowns, acrobats or ironworkers - we love 'em.

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The footing with Chris in the background

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A drill for drilling the holes coupling the legs to the foundation

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and now - both legs

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as the sun says goodbye

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Time to call it a day

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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