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 15, 2006: Removal of the superstructure adjacent to the temporary supports

Worksite

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A different view with the Oxy tanks in the middle

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Manny lowering the cable to pick up the lift bar

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The lift bar

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and positioning it

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Nugget starting the cut for the hole for attaching the lift bar cables

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and Carlos getting into position

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the hole for attaching the lift cable

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Cables attached and Manny stabilizing the section

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Nugget starts his base cut

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and Stan (I think) starting a cut on the opposite side

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Carlos on top, Stan and Nugget on the base over the temp supports

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Everything ready for the final cuts. Click for a video of cutting and removal

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Cutting the near side

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and starting the far side cut

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continuning the cut

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Now cutting the inside cross support

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and its Christmas tree lights

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A special gift to Charleston's Christmas lights

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Completing the far side and near side cuts

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Almost complete

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Nugget appears to be completing the cut on the near side

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While Carlos completes the far side

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Then the cross brace cuts

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while Carlos completes the far side cut

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and Manny starts the playtex lift and separate protocol.

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Liftoff

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and a little rotation and on the way down

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down with a nice view of the Ravenel Bridge in the background

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and down

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and down

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

C. Frank Starmer

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