End of an Era

This is the true story of the History of the Demolition of the 2 Cooper River bridges . The Grace was complete in August,1929 and the Pearman was completed in 1966. They allowed traffic to flow between Charleston, South Carolina and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The Grace was built in 18 months, was a toll bridge and shortly after it was completed the country went into a deep depression. The Silas N. Pearman bridge was built to ease the high traffic demands that came with the growth of the area. It was a 3 lane bridge, where the Grace was 2 very narrow lanes. They were being replaced by a new higher span bridge named The Arthur Ravenel Bridge. A cable stay suspension bridge that is much higher for ships to travel underneath it better. The 2 Old Cooper River Bridge's we removed because they were rusting badly and obsolete. The contractor was Cashman/ Testa and they we responsible for the complete removal of all the steel and concrete above and below the water, up to 40 feet. Sparky Witte recorded the history of the removal for over 2 years. This is a coffee table book with the story and pictures of what took place during that time!