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.
Back on Friday - here is the worksite with Manny's crane in the middle.
One of the bearings
Note the recently added guy wires to stabilize the temporary piers.
Another view of the stabilizing cables attached to the middle columns
Another view
The Grace roadway truss
One of the stabilizing cable anchors attached to a Pearman pier
Another guy wire attached to the base of the other temporary support
A side view of the stabilizing cables
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer