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.
July 20, 2005 17:50
East Bay Before
August 22, 2005 15:15
Marching from Meeting St to East Bay
August 23, 2005 17:10
Battle of the Titans (from Sparky Witte)
September 02, 2005 14:56
East Bay off ramp (before)
September 19, 2005 12:03
Under the Pearman On Ramp
September 29, 2005 7:47
The last of the East Bay off ramp
October 01, 2005 0:00
From SCDOT: A view from above
October 20, 2005 23:00
Removing concrete griders over Immigration Drive
October 20, 2005 23:57
Removing concrete girders: A view from the top
October 26, 2005 8:10
The changing faces of East Bay
October 27, 2005 8:40
Progress around East Bay
October 29, 2005 9:28
Unbuilding the Grace roadway: Crossing East Bay
October 31, 2005 16:32
The variety of East Bay sights
November 01, 2005 16:20
Harvesting the last girder before East Bay
November 02, 2005 5:03
Early morning work: removing roadway crossing East Bay
November 02, 2005 23:03
Late night work: Harvesting girders over East Bay as seen from below and above
November 10, 2005 7:04
Harvesting girders over East Bay
November 10, 2005 8:17
The 7550 harvesting girders from the Pearman ramp
November 11, 2005 12:23
Extending the Pearman skeleton
November 11, 2005 13:10
Building a bridge to unbuild a pier cap
November 12, 2005 6:10
Cleanup and bringing down the next column
November 14, 2005 21:05
Picking a Grace segment of the East Bay overpasses
November 18, 2005 7:45
East Bay Street has its own Stonehenge
November 19, 2005 11:08
The disappearing Pearman Stonehenge and going is the Grace ramp
November 21, 2005 13:25
All that remains are roots and bones at the Columbus St. Terminal
November 22, 2005 13:50
The East Bay Stonehenge
December 07, 2005 15:35
The makings of the East Bay Park
January 05, 2006 16:12
From Meeting St to East Bay - only a small Grace ramp remains
January 07, 2006 9:45
The jackup barge at work
January 21, 2006 8:30
From Meeting St to East Bay and back
January 25, 2006 13:50
Gone is the Grace off ramp at America St.
January 26, 2006 15:00
Blasting the T-4 foundation, removing Grace's off ramp and ironworker acrobats
February 01, 2006 0:00
SCDOT gives us a view from above
February 04, 2006 16:20
A transition from unbuilding to rebuilding
February 16, 2006 14:20
A bit of building going on in the yard and other stuff
February 22, 2006 17:30
Transition from unbuilding to rebuilding: Along Lee St between East Bay and Meeting St.
May 12, 2006 16:40
Rebuilding along Lee St between Meeting and East Bay
June 01, 2006 10:00
A view from above by SCDOT
June 24, 2006 11:57
From SCDOT, Julie and Randi - A history of the project from above
July 01, 2006 7:12
A new meaning of high reach
July 10, 2006 18:16
Down memory lane between East Bay and Meeting St
October 10, 2006 9:00
Brian Dadin joins our team and Grace has a mid-span support
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer