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 09, 2005 15:59
An early bite of the bridge
August 11, 2005 17:19
Removing the Pearman roadway
August 19, 2005 13:48
Removing the last girder over Meeting St.
September 20, 2005 11:32
Cutting through girders: Nugget, a dentist in disguise
October 03, 2005 19:27
Neil Myers night crew at work
November 04, 2005 8:27
Picking girders from the Cooper River segment of the Pearman
November 08, 2005 14:25
Reef Transplantation: The Testa-Cashman surgical procedure
November 15, 2005 10:03
Dropping the Drum Island cantilevered section of the Pearman
November 30, 2005 6:30
Loading and sequencing D-25 with explosives
November 30, 2005 15:53
Imploding Pearman Pier D-25
December 11, 2005 14:23
The jackup barge and a language lesson
December 14, 2005 6:32
Early morning girder harvesting
December 30, 2005 9:40
Micro building and unbuilding
Happy New Year from us to you
January 07, 2006 8:45
Unbuilding the Pearman ramp and preparing the observation deck foundation
January 09, 2006 10:04
Early start, loading and imploding Pearman D-24
January 11, 2006 15:01
Practice makes perfect: Dropping D-27 with remote ignition
January 15, 2006 10:45
A distraction: Vehicular and pedestrian bridges of Singapore
January 21, 2006 10:05
Downhill unbuilding of the Grace ramp
January 24, 2006 15:05
Drilling the T4 base for explosive disassembly
January 25, 2006 14:05
Adventures with Captain Bill's jackup barge and Mickey's drilling team
February 02, 2006 7:34
A golden early morning and loading D-24
February 14, 2006 10:00
Implosion of D-25 substructure
February 15, 2006 10:00
Explosive fracture of the Grace Cantilever Truss
February 20, 2006 9:45
Installing the hydraulic jack - umbrella - cable assembly
February 22, 2006 6:45
History today - Successful lowering of the Pearman main span over the Cooper RIver
March 18, 2006 7:04
Ironworker acrobats display their Graceful respect of Grace
March 27, 2006 15:03
Rebuilding a jackup barge leg, work on "Stiff Neck" and pre-blast prep on the Pearman
April 05, 2006 9:00
Demolition Dynamics: Dropping the east Pearman cantilever
May 16, 2006 8:57
The Last Grace Blast and a tribute from the C-17s and F-15s
June 30, 2006 13:35
Marine life in the Cooper River
July 14, 2006 14:50
C-1 base takes a dive
August 16, 2006 7:08
Waking up across the street: Michael in the thinking position
September 08, 2006 18:20
Around the world in 36 hours with Singapore Airlines
October 20, 2006 18:17
Evening street scenes in Singapore's Chinatown
January 12, 2007 9:21
T-1 is no more: Mickey and Ken at their best
January 13, 2007 13:11
Michael Rogers makes his debut
February 20, 2007 13:45
A weekend at Lincoln's Kelong - near Batam Indonesia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer