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.
August 12, 2005 20:12
Night work at I-26 Exit 221 B
August 14, 2005 8:49
Lifting girders
August 14, 2005 11:11
Extracting a pair of teeth (from Sparky Witte)
September 03, 2005 19:05
Coupling the superstructure to the support base
September 12, 2005 11:10
Coupling the superstructure to the support base
September 20, 2005 11:32
Cutting through girders: Nugget, a dentist in disguise
September 21, 2005 10:20
Cutting the roadway into segments
with video
September 21, 2005 15:11
Charleston's Temporary Stonehenge
September 21, 2005 17:54
Removing a roadway segment
with video
September 21, 2005 19:07
Cutting girders
October 03, 2005 18:36
Some insights into how to drop a span of bridge
October 05, 2005 12:31
Dropping a Pearman column just like dropping a tree - almost
October 29, 2005 10:48
Innovation@work: roadway removal over steel girders
November 02, 2005 23:03
Late night work: Harvesting girders over East Bay as seen from below and above
November 07, 2005 16:25
Harvesting girders from the Pearman: 50 tons at a time
November 08, 2005 14:25
Reef Transplantation: The Testa-Cashman surgical procedure
November 11, 2005 13:10
Building a bridge to unbuild a pier cap
November 16, 2005 7:57
Innovation@work: Removing roadway segments over concrete girders
November 18, 2005 11:20
Removing the Grace skeleton inside the Port
November 30, 2005 6:30
Loading and sequencing D-25 with explosives
December 06, 2005 18:12
Raising Grace from Town Creek
December 12, 2005 8:20
Bobby McCabe's Pearman jazz ensemble with a Jackup Barge
December 30, 2005 9:40
Micro building and unbuilding
Happy New Year from us to you
January 15, 2006 10:45
A distraction: Vehicular and pedestrian bridges of Singapore
February 05, 2006 10:00
Unbuilding in Columbia: Imploding a building
February 22, 2006 6:45
History today - Successful lowering of the Pearman main span over the Cooper RIver
March 01, 2006 6:45
The Ironworkers proclaim that the Cooper River is Graceless
June 07, 2006 12:57
Preparing to unbuild P-11: A template + drilling + skill
June 10, 2006 16:35
Unbuilding the C-2 Pearman bearing
July 26, 2006 7:26
ABS University, Prof. Rogers and the CHS Bomb Squad
August 06, 2006 8:12
Unbuilding an HDB block in Singapore
October 26, 2006 11:00
An aerial survey from SCDOT
November 02, 2006 10:15
Sextet for Stan, Nugget, Carlos, Troy, Manny and Chris.
November 09, 2006 17:23
Manny and Chris get well deserved extensions
November 20, 2006 17:19
More Pearman truss unbuilding
December 06, 2006 13:11
Manny and Iron Worker Acrobats - the end is near
December 13, 2006 14:25
Roadway removal and cleaning up the Coleman Recycle Center
December 15, 2006 8:07
Paving the Mt. Pleasant pier
January 10, 2007 16:17
Wrapping T-1 for Friday's implosion
January 13, 2007 13:11
Michael Rogers makes his debut
March 13, 2007 14:25
Manny demonstrates the Manny push strategy.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer