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.

November 21, 2005:
Grace bones and Pearman roots

Sparky braved the rain yesterday and brings us up to date with progress around the Port. Here Pearman fragments are being retrieved.

A closer look at the Pearman bones

An about all that is left of the Pearman supports within the Columbus St Terminal are roots

and a reminder of the Port Stonehenge that was

Grace's bones are being cut into managable pieces

and that is about all that is left - a few bones

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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