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.
Meanwhile at the port, Manny and Chris are getting an extension-job on their cranes - Chris' 7550 and Manny's red crane
A look at the completed Pearman supports
Here is Chris' 7550 and setting up to lift the extension cap
and attaching it to the boom
Now set the pin
and prepare to encourage the pin
and the encourager
almost done
which a side glance from Nugget
Here Chris is lifting the section - and look at Sparky's shadow
Lifting another extension section
Nugget driving the 7550 extension lifter
into the off position
Now to Manny's crane
Inspecting the boom
to be extended
and a last look at the worksite bathed in a bit of golden evening sun
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer