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.
The worksite: The Grace truss adjacent to the Sea Breeze Marina and the Pearman truss, keeping Grace happy
Sonny and Chris Vocci's highrise lifting machine (aka Grove ????)
Chris inside his high rise lifting machine
Sonny (right) and Carlos (left)
The Grace Cantilever section
Looking from beneath the unbuilt section
As seen from the marina
Look where Sonny and Carlos cut the girders
An unbuilt secion of the Grace truss
The adjacent to-be-unbuilt section
Chris moving into the lifting position
Side girder from earlier unbuilding
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer