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.
Here is the area between Meeting and East Bay St.
The East Bay Stonehenge - looking south
And Chris Vocci lifing sections of the Grace supports
The Grace and Pearman approaches to the Town Creek crossing
The Grace Town Creek mainspan after the October 11 Pearman blast
The Grace skeleton crossing Drum Island
And here is Pio and Richie and Jackie - removing the Grace roadway
The Ravenel, Grace and Pearman main spans
Looking north up Town Creek and the Grace main span
back at the port, here is Chris
East Bay and Line 14 ramp to the Ravenel Bridge
The Pearman ramp approaching East Bay
Around America St
The Town Creek crossing
The Town Creek crossing
The Ravenel and Town Creek
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer