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.
A small surprise: Aerial photos from SCDOT
Town Creek
The Grace Ramp before the May 16 blast
The west Grace anchor before the May 16 blast
The Pearman and Grace anchor segments before the west Pearman anchor blast
The east Grace and Pearman anchor sections before the April 5 blast
The east Grace and Pearman anchor sections before the April 28 blast
The residual east grace on ramp - a fishing exercise for Michael
Looking across the Cooper River - the evolution of a new skyline
Looking north-west
Drum Island
The Pearman and Grace main-spanless ship channel
Michael and his sleeping 1250
The Pearman and Grace anchors on the port side
Near East Bay St.
Near the community pool
and near Meeting St.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer