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.

From the Ravenel bicycle lane

The Beginning of Unbuilding

An early bite of the bridge

Getting started

Between King Street and Meeting St

Night work at I-26 Exit 221 B

Night work on the I-26 overpass

Morning work - Lifting girders with a mega-crane

Lifting girders

Sparky's photos: Progress between Meeting and King

Clash of the titans

Jack Foley: Reflective sun glasses make a difference

Michael Hebb (Anniversary boy)

Cutting through girders: Nugget, a dentist in disguise

Cutting the roadway into segments
with video

Sharon Stallings - Boat driver

From SCDOT: A view from above

Neil Myers night crew at work

Dropping a Pearman column just like dropping a tree - almost

Dropping the Town Creek segment of the Pearman Bridge

Removing concrete griders over Immigration Drive

Late night work: Harvesting girders over East Bay as seen from below and above

Harvesting girders from the Pearman: 50 tons at a time

Reef Transplantation: The Testa-Cashman surgical procedure

Dropping the Drum Island cantilevered section of the Pearman

Innovation@work: Removing roadway segments over concrete girders

Loading and sequencing D-25 with explosives

Imploding Pearman Pier D-25

A gift from SCDOT - a view from above

Dropping the Town Creek Section of the Grace Bridge

Dropping Pearman piers M1-M5 with style

Bob McCabe - never standing still

The all purpose Richie

Adventures with Captain Bill's jackup barge and Mickey's drilling team

High flying with the iron workers

Backing down the Grace at 4am

SCDOT gives us a view from above

The end of Grace: Unpouring the last segment of the Grace ramp

Jim Grier and his A team fells the last Grace segment on Drum Island

History today - Successful lowering of the Pearman main span over the Cooper RIver

The Ironworkers proclaim that the Cooper River is Graceless

T-3 and Frank say bye bye

From SCDOT: A view from above

Demolition Dynamics: Dropping the east Pearman cantilever

Jackie Foley and Michael Hebb and how to fish for Grace truss sections

Charge placement on the Grace structure

Bye bye Grace (Mt. Pleasant side)

The Last Grace Blast and a tribute from the C-17s and F-15s

Oscar and the team preparing for the last Pearman blast

Bye bye to the last Pearman superstructure

Preparing to unbuild P-11: A template + drilling + skill

From SCDOT, Julie and Randi - A history of the project from above

Down memory lane between East Bay and Meeting St

ABS University, Prof. Rogers and the CHS Bomb Squad

My dad passed to us many gifts and now he has passed

Part 1: Chris, Robbie, Lewis and Carlos - Graceful acrobats @ work

Part 2: Raising the Grace pier truss

Part 3: Unbuilding Grace from her feet

The Mt. Pleasant Pier resting on the Pearman footings

Sextet for Stan, Nugget, Carlos, Troy, Manny and Chris.

Watch Manny and the Ironworkers unbuild a Grace section

Another face lift by Manny, Carlos and the team

A view of the Grace Skateboard ramp from above

Unbuilding half the last superstructure

Carlos, Lewis, Nugget, Stan, Robbie, Randi, Rick, Manny, Chris and a segment of Project Runway

The last of Grace to come down

Near completion of the Grace steel structures

SCDOT's aerial survey

Wrapping T-1 for Friday's implosion

Mickey, Ken and team loading T-1

T-1 is no more: Mickey and Ken at their best

Gone is T-2, the last of the Pearman support piers

Nearing completion of the Mt. Pleasant Pier

Shelly pushes the button and gone is the T-2 foundation

Bringing down the last Grace pier

Manny demonstrates the Manny push strategy.

The last Graceful Blast from Mickey, Michael, Ken and the entire unbuilding team

The clean up after ...

The last of Manny. What a man and what a smile - sigh

Morning sun kisses the Graceless and Pearmanless Ravenel Bridge

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer