John P. Grace Memorial Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Grace Memorial Bridge was a cantilever bridge that crossed the Cooper River in Charleston, South Carolina. It opened on August 8, 1929. The Silas N. Pearman Memorial Bridge was opened beside it in 1966 to relieve traffic. It was replaced by the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge in 2005.
The bridge was owned by Cooper River Bridge, Inc., a private company. President of the company was John P. Grace, former mayor of Charleston. The bridge was designed by Shortridge Hardesty and was built by a consortium of four engineering and construction firms. Construction lasted seventeen months, and the final cost of the bridge was six million dollars, to be financed by a 50-cent toll. The bridge had 2- 10ft. lanes. In 1946 the state bought the bridge from Cooper River Bridge, Inc. and the 50-cent toll was removed. Unfortunately the same year a freighter rammed the bridge ripping down a 240-foot section of it. Widening occurred in 1959 for a breakdown lane and in 1979 for a 3rd lane at the Charleston approach. By 1989, the bridge became functionally obsolete and there were many plans to replace the bridge, but not enough money.
In 1995 the Grace bridge scored only a 4 out of 100 (4%), or an F, in safety Arthur Ravenel Jr. ran for SC Senate as a way to solve the problem. He planned for an 8 lane bridge to replace the Grace/Pearman spans of US 17. Construction started in 2001 and the new bridge opened in July 2005, at which point the Grace bridge closed to traffic.
After a "Burn The Bridges" run and a parade of 1929-era cars over the empty deck, demolition of the Grace bridge began in August 2006. There had been a movement to try to sell the bridge or to place it on the National Register of Historic Places so that, after removal, it could be reassembled elsewhere, but most of the steel and concrete was either recycled or dropped into the ocean to serve as a fishing reef.
