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.

September 19, 2005:
Removing the Cooper River segment of the Pearman roadway

Work continues on the Pearman - working over the Cooper River. Here is the transition from the Drum Island supports to the Cooper River supports.

And a view of the Ravenel Bridge and the main span approach of the Cooper River segment of the Pearman Bridge

Looking back at the super structure pin region

And Testa working away at removing the roadway over the Cooper River

I thought it would be interesting to get another look at the Pearman skeleton from below

and surprise - I caught Michael Hebb working away at lunch

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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