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.
Home Meeting St East Bay Drum Island Mt. PLeasant Pearman Stories Grace Stories Implosions Enginnering Insights Stories of unbuilders Learning Links Bridge Video Bridge Blog Unbuilding Archive All Unbuilding Segments Building the Ravenel Bridge Photo Essays About me
December 12, 2005:
The Pearman ramp is no more

Michael and Ryan have been finishing off the Pearman ramp at the Charleston end while Jackie is unbuilding it on the Mt. Pleasant side. As you can see, there is very little left of the Grace ramp. Looking from Nassau Street.

All that is left is a single pier

I am reminded of sitting in a dental chair every time I watch the coordination between the excavator operators and the water guys. Fortunately the noise is low pitched - not the high pitched whine of a dental drill.

Ryan working away - sort of like a root canal job on the pier foundation

while Ryan hammers away at the pier foundation

Here, the afternoon light paints a picture of the root canal process

Michael is preoccupied with moving debris from A to B

Beyond is the Pearman Monument and what remains of the Drum Creek segments of the Grace and Pearman and our new Ravenel Bridge

From the entrance to the Columbus St. Terminal - the Pearman and Grace cantilevered sections

and following the birth of the new is the disapperance of the old

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

_