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.

February 22, 2006:
From unbuilding to rebuilding: between Meeting St and East Bay St

Walking back from the Sea Breeze Marina - I happened upon the rebuilding between Meeting St and East Bay. So I stopped, took a few reference photos and here is the story.

At the east end of Lee St - where the Grace off ramp used to roller-coaster you

At America St - from a distance

Looking closer, new storm pipes are being installed

Looking down Lee St - all rebuilding this neighborhood

More storm lines

At Nassau St - more rebuilding

and just a few steps south - more rebuilding

And from Meeting St. more rebuilding. Its everywhere and this neighborhood is going to escape the hidded village buried under the old Grace and Pearman access ramps

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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