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: Removing the next section

To put it simply, I'm confused by the EXIF time stamps so I am guessing at the sequence. Fortunatly, these guys can't restore overnight what they unbuilt the previous day so I think I've got it right.

The worksite - with the top right section to be cut and removed

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Here is Carlos on the far top and ? on the near top coupling the lift bar to the to-be-removed section

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A smile from Carlos as he passes the cable loop through the pin and locks it

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Robbie positioning himself

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Carlos (far top), Nugget (near top) and Robbie - climing the diagonal

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and Stan walking the plank

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Where is Robbie?

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Far lift cable attached

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and near lift cable attached

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Robbie starts his cut

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A closer view

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and another close view

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Far side and near side cutting

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Taking out the cross brace

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Nugget starts a cut on the top

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Manny's boom, Nugget and Carlos on top

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Final cuts on the top sections

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Closer

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Almost completed

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Nugget cutting the outside

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and Carlos watching everything

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Nuggest finishing the outside cut - from a safe distance - while Carlos sinishes the opposite outside cut

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Freed at last

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Carlos completes the cut on the other side

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and it is also free

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and its all up to Manny now. Click and watch this surgical skill

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as he lifts and separates

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From below

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Up, up and away

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then rotate and lower

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and down it comes, perfectly balanced

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down with Paul carefully watching

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Manny rotates again

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as Paul and Stan guide it

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and down

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and resting

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waiting for the divide and conquor act

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Lunch time

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Nugget, Manny and his cap

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

C. Frank Starmer

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