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.

October 1, 2005:SCDOT: A view from above

Continued progress from Meeting St. to East Bay

Meeting St.

The community pool

The Pearman and Grace approaches at the port

Transition to the Town Creek bridges

The Town Creek skeletons: Note the white barrels on top of the Pearman, preparing for the initial explosive unbuilding of the Town Creek main span

Drum Island as the Grace and Pearman cross from the Charleston side

and the Pearman piers = Stonehenge

The Coleman recycle center

The Cooper River channel

Picking Pearman girders

Back to Stonehenge on the east side of Drum Island

and Drum Island

Town Creek - and maybe Pio's crew removing the roadway

and the area around America St.

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C. Frank Starmer

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