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.
Acrobats @ work: Gently dropping part of Grace
The worksite - adjacent to the Sea Breeze Marina
Chris and his 7550 holding up elderly Grace
Carlos with the big V and Lewis supervising the big V
Two acrobats: Carlos on the left, Lewis on the right
Acrobats burning
Lewis freeing part of Grace
Two acrobats: Lewis and Carlos
and Lewis burning
Lewis checking it out
and burning
Lewis watching while Carlos burns
and Chris stabilizes Grace
Lewis and Carlos
and Robbie
The last burn
The cable attachment
Gently lifting Grace
slowly up on the right
Then sliding to the left
the up up and away with Grace. Watch a synthesized video from Sparky's photos - Click here
Chris rotating the section
and down
down
Chris watching
and continuing down
Lewis, Carlos and Robbie ready to start the next section
Our favorite acrobats: Lewis (left) Carlos and Robbie
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer