Changing the face of Charleston : The unbuilding of the Grace and Pearman Bridges
Frank's Internet Home Page
Blog: 2005
Archives of unbuilding sections
Blog: 2006
The story of building the Ravenel Bridge
Visit our
Adventures in Singapore
Click to view all web page segments
I enjoy hearing from you. If you have comments and suggestions, write me.


Unbuilding Highlights
(Apr 10)
Meeting St. Stories
(Jul 10 2006)
East Bay Stories
(Oct 10 2006)
Drum Island Stories
(Feb 17)
Pearman Bridge Stories
(Apr 3)
Grace Bridge Stories
(Apr 3)
Imposions: Prep and boom
(Mar 27)
Unbuilding Bridge Blog
(July 23 2006)
Unbuilding Challenges
(Mar 13)
Learning Links
(Feb 20)
Unbuilding Stories
(Mar 13)
Video and Sounds
(Feb 28)

October 13, 2006:
Sparky is back in business

Sparky, just as a reality check has been restoring his building skills - here a new walkway - the finished part.

and the work-in-progress part

And what a view

Meanwhile here is the current state of the Mt. Pleasant observation pier

and looking back toward's Mt. Pleasant. When I left in March - where there were only footings and pilings now stands a structure.

The shore-side origin of the observation pier.

and a few remaining Grace feet

What used to be the Grace on ramp

and the take-off point

Cousin Arthurs watching over Grace's feet

and watching over the growing observation pier

Meanwhile, on the Charleston side of the river, here is a view of the footings and support for supporting the mid-span section of the Grace truss

and the support structure

I think this is the J. Cashman, the 995 cleaner-upper that is moving residual concrete and rebar debris from the river bottom to adjacent barges. There are probably a few Frank fragments of T-3 here - left over from Mickey's March 22 farewell

A closer look at the 995

The remaining sections of the Pearman and Grace trusses as well as Grace's crutch

and a closer look at the feet of Grace's crutches

Looking up at the support

and looking along the long axis of the truss - look at that symmetry - nice work!

Additional casing

and poking their head up - with Chris' 7550 in the background

A look from the other side

The Port worksite

From the other side - a good view of the 7550 and both Grace and Pearman trusses

and more casings (?)

And to the side - sections of the supports removed a couple of weeks ago

But Sparky is trapped - a 30 min wait while the train folks change shifts

You can see that he escaped - I have his photos. Stay tuned

Click to view all unbuilding web page segments

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Attribution: C. Frank Starmer and Sparky Witte from http://oldcooperriverbridge.org