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 25, 2005:
From the Ravenel Bridge Bicycle Path

More fun with early morning sunlight. Here is the Ravenel Bridge with golden edge girders flanked by the Grace and Pearman skeletons.

Since Sunday morning, the Grace roadway over Drum Island is gone

Just a few supports remain

Yesterday, Sparky captured the progress from Drum Island - looking west

and looking east over the Cooper River - the Grace (left) and Pearman (right) skeletons.

A view from under the Ravenel Bridge looking west

And from the Ravenel bike path, here are the overlapping skeletons over Town Creek

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C. Frank Starmer

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