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.

October 30, 2006: Removing Grace's foot prints

Remember the last of Grace's foot prints on the Mt. Pleasant side? Well, Mickey's guys unbuilt them in a sequential manner.

Here are Grace's foot prints

oct_30_blast_011_grace_foot_prints.jpg

Ignition

oct_30_blast_012_ignition.jpg

two thirds completed

oct_30_blast_013_completion.jpg

the last blast

oct_30_blast_014_final.jpg

the end

oct_30_blast_018_end.jpg

and after

oct_30_blast_031_feet_gone.jpg

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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