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.
More views from above - here East Bay, the entrance to the Columbus Street Terminal and the Tasta yard
Town Creek and the jack-up barge
The ship channel - Grace and Pearman superstructures
Pio and his Graceful team
The Coleman Recycle center
Looking west over the Ravenel, Pearman and Grace structures
The new Ravenel Bridge is always a delight
Town Creek and tenacity of purpoase
The Grace and Pearman superstructures
Looking along Meeting Street at the I-26 junction
Looking east along the old US 17 path
And in the beginning, here is where the Pearman on-ramp started
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer