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.

December 13, 2006: Cleaning up the Pearman port site

The Pearman worksite

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Cleanup = cut, pickup and haul

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Carlos in the check-out position

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There was a think fog - and this adds an interesting perspective to Sparky's photos

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Stan doing a bit of cutting

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I think this is Chris Vocci - doing a bit of pickup and delivery

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more of Chris

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Cutting some angle iron for bracing Grace

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Joe just arrived from Boston - and adds to the cutting crew

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more cutting

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and more of Chris cleaning up

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Pickup

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Position

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and deposit

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Another pickup

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Rotate

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and deposit

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and Jaws, of course

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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