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.
In the beginning, most of the work was concentrated at the I2-6 exit and US 17 overpasses over I-26. Here are the Ravenel, Grace and Pearman approaches
The Pearman and Grace approaches on the east side of Drum Island
The Coleman Blvd area - later to become the Coleman Recycle Center
The bridge approaches from Mt. Pleasant
The west side of Drum Island
The west side of Drum Island
and the Grace and Pearman passing over East Bay
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer