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.
While I was in Singapore, Mickey got the action of Ken and the guys with a double barreled day - dropping D-23 (at the edge of Drum Island) and taking the top off of D-25. Here is the before.
Here, D-25 has started
D-23 is resting and the top of D-25 in the background is fractionating
The D-23 ignition sequence is almost complete
and the cap ignites
and starts to fractionate and drop
down
down
Its all over but the smoke
D-25 and D-23 after the smoke cleared
D-25 after
Ken with a smile, actually big smile
D-23 after
Testa moves in and starts the cleanup
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer