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 23, 2006: Sparky and unbuilding the great Mammoet

Early this afternoon, Sparky found our team - busy unbuilding on the Pearman cantilever sections and building on the Grace cantilever. Our fearless ironworkers and a couple of Mammoets (pronounced Mamoot). (Left to right) Nugget, Chucky, Jeff, Derek, Chris and Charles

The west assembly - one umbrella to go

The east assembly

A close view of the east assembly - one umbrella waiting

And a lone Scott working on the Grace - preparing to receive the Mammoet beams

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C. Frank Starmer

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