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.

July 26, 2006: Mickey and his ABS University

There is always a moment of reckoning in evey learning exercise - whether senior learner (Prof. Rogers and Tully) or junior learners (Karl, Joe, Jack and Mike). When you start the shock tube ignition, all the planning, organization and execution are on the line. Here we present the Final Exam for our CHS colleagues - and watch the result (above links). Sparky gets an A+ for video camera stability. You can feel the 2 - 3' swells from his position. Real reality, no virtual reality here!.

10:15:07 -An 8 minute delay which seemed like 10 min - then BOOM

Single Frame analysis

T = 0.000 msec       T = 0.033 msec

T = 0.067 msec       T = 0.100 msec

T = 0.133 msec       T = 0.167 msec

T = 0.200 msec       T = 0.233 msec

T = 0.267 msec       T = 0.300 msec

T = 0.333 msec       T = 0.367 msec

T = 0.400 msec       T = 0.433 msec

T = 0.467 msec       T = 0.500 msec

T = 0.533 msec       T = 0.567 msec

T = 0.600 msec       T = 0.633 msec

and the final exam. The bomb squad passed with A+

10:15:12 - down

10:15:18 - down

10:15:21 - down

10:15:24 and down

10:15:27

10:15:33

10:15:38

10:15:42

10:15:48

10:15:55

10:16:04

10:16:39

10:19:58

10:22_54 - The barge meeting with Davy Jones (Ellen and I watched this at the Tjong Bahru Cinema last week)

Marking the spot (I think)

Going home, with an escort

More going home

The 995 at work through the haze

Fishing with Joe Rye and the 995

Cousin Arthur through the haze

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C. Frank Starmer

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