Unbuilding the Grace and Pearman Bridges


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.

April 8, 2006:
Richie and Jackie - Mt. Pleasant cleanup

What a change in the Mt. Pleasant view of the Pearman and Grace worksite. Gone is the roadway girder substructure. Gone are the supports. All that remains are two cantilever sections, concrete pier bases and the ice-cream-like concrete structures for supporting the cantilever section. What an opportunity for "Ye old icecream" to create a Grace(ful) cone for their ice cream.

The worksite

Today is Jackie Foley and Richie Bagan - what fun we had several months ago when the last concrete section of the Grace roadway was removed.

Here is Jackie loading some of the last steel sections for transport

and Jackie - no reflective sun glasses today

Jackie loading

Jackie can load from many different orientations

and Richie - the man who always gets the job done and then more!

Jackie doing pickup and delivery

and the dynamic duo - Jackie and Richie

More pickup, cleanup and in general -up

The Grace on ramp

End of the day (actually, the beginning of tomorrow, a resting grapple

and our signature barrier - artistically framed by Sparky

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C. Frank Starmer

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