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.
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September 11, 2005:
Between Meeting St and East Bay

A lot has happened over the past week. Here is where it all started - where I-26 diverges from the US-17 Pearman on-ramp. Nothing ....

The edge of the Pearman on-ramp

Here is a view from Meeting Street. Very clean. The stacks of concrete panels (on the right) are sections removed from the Pearman bridge.

Here is what is left of the Hanover overpass

This is what remains of the Pearman on-ramp and the East Bay off-ramp

And the America St. overpass

Here is the other end of the East Bay off-ramp

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C. Frank Starmer

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