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.

September 2, 2005:
From the Ravenel Bicycle lane

The Grace and Pearman above the Sea Breeze Marina - tight quarters

The Grace and Pearman activity - starting to work on the trusses

A pleasant view of the Grace, Pearman and Ravenel

The Pearman truss work - building a platform

Two views of the platform work

The Pearman and Grace Bridges

A closer look at the platform

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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