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.
Looking East from Meeting Street (July 20, 2005)
Looking East from Meeting Street today
Unbuilding is complete and now rebuilding has started
Here is the rampful Grace (August 18, 2005)
Here is the rampless Grace
Looking south on East Bay (July 20, 2005)
and today
The Grace and Pearman structures (August 5, 2005)
The Grace and Pearman skeletons today
and tenacity of purpose
One column down, one column to go
and from the Port - the end of the line for the Grace and Pearman trusses
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer