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.
It all started when Sparky headed to the worksite - driving across the Ravenel Bridge
The worksite from the Ravenel
The worksite with the Ravenel Bridge in the background. A completed building project and a soon to be completed unbuilding project
The worksite from the Port
with Manny making final preparations - placing blankets on the top of Grace's last pier
a closer look at the blankets on the top of the pier
and a view of the blankets at the pier base
Manny lifting another blanket
Sparky's setup and Manny in the background finishing the blanket placement
then lifting the spud that anchors the work barge (with Manny's crane and the 1250
a closer view of Manny lifting the spud
and repositioning his barge
The preblast worksite
Before ignition
Then boom
and crumble. Much more impressive than shock and awe
Down
Down
Down
and only the stub of the tooth remains - another Manny job
What's left
and after the blast and smoke cleared
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer