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.
Sparky got to the worksite just in time to watch the separation and lowering of one of the final spans
another view of the worksite showing Manny's crane and the to-be-removed section between the concrete pier and the temporary supports
The right rail - recently removed
Our team of iron worker acrobats: Carlos, Stan, Robbie?e and Nugget
and their elevator
Up up and away
In the middle - preparing to wrap the box beam with cables
Getting into position
Carlos signaling Manny
Into position
Making a hole for wrapping the cables
Manny moving the cables into position
Waiting
Cables in position for attaching around the box girder
Stan (far left) and Robbie preparing one end for attaching
more getting ready
Dropping one end through the hole and wrapping the box girder
Preparing the other cable
Carlos signaling Manny - take up the slack
While someone starts cutting the near end of the box girder
and Manny stabilizes the girder
Robbie starting to burn through the far end with Stan sort of chillin'
and continuing to cut through the near end
while Lewis is cutting the left box girder into smaller sections
A closer view of Carlos cutting the near end
Robbie cutting at the far end
Completed cut
and Robbie continuing to cut through the other end
while Carlos enjoys the view
Robbie cutting through the hand rail
and continuing to cut through the box girder
Separation and lift-off
Manny slowly lifts the segment
Wow - what a view - clouds, Manny in action and the separated girder
Then lowering it
down
down
down
Looking up the support (Sparky is great with picking interesting perspectives
Paul Achorn and Carlos in the elevator - with the drilled pier behind them
Nugget displaying his skill at divide and conquor
Cutting the middle rail
and Nugget cutting the top rail
Manny's cap
Manny and Chris Vocci - what a pair
Sunset
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer