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