Cooper River Bridges (1929–2005)

The Cooper River Bridges were a pair of cantilever truss bridges that carried traffic over the Cooper River in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The first bridge opened in 1929, a second one opened in 1966 to relieve traffic congestion. The Grace Memorial Bridge was constructed by a private company known as Cooper River Bridge, Inc, and the Pearman Bridge was built by the SCDOT and designed by HNTB Corporation.

Design
The Grace Memorial Bridge carried two narrow 10 ft lanes. The mainspan of the second cantilever was the twelfth-longest in the world. The total length of the structure was about 2.7 mi. Following a 17-month construction at a cost of $6 million, it opened with a three-day celebration that attracted visitors from around the globe. Engineers and critics proclaimed colorful descriptions of the unique structure, deeming it "the first roller-coaster bridge" and citing that "steep approaches, stupendous height, extremely narrow width, and a sharp curve at the dip conspire to excite and alarm the motorist."

The Pearman Bridge consisted of three wide lanes to carry traffic, two carrying US 17 northbound traffic and one lane that carried Southbound traffic. In this manner, the reversible lane could be used in the direction of heavy traffic in the mornings and evenings as Mount Pleasant was effectively a bedroom community at the time. One lane was originally reversible, which led to signs warning "Use lanes with green arrow" and "Do not use red X lane".

History
A group of businessmen, led by Harry F. Barkerding and Charles R. Allen, announced their plans to get a charter from the state to construct a steel bridge across the Cooper River in June 1926. The group formed the Cooper River Bridge, Inc., on June 7, 1926, with Ashmead F. Pringle as the first president. On June 8, 1926, the state issued a charter to the new company to "buy, rent, lease, build or otherwise acquire bridges across streams both intrastate and interstate, together with rights of way and right to construct and own and operate the same, and to charge tolls for passage across and enter upon such bridges, etc."

The ribbon was cut on August 8, 1929, at 1:12 p.m. by Col. James Armstrong, and between 30,000 and 50,000 people crossed the bridge during its first day. The bridge was owned by Cooper River Bridge, Inc., a private company. The bridge was designated as the John P. Grace Memorial Bridge, named after the president of the company, John P. Grace, former mayor of Charleston. The bridge 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 originally had two 10 ft lanes.

While meant to be paid off in toll revenue, tolls failed to cover costs, and Charleston County purchased the bridge in 1941 for $4,400,000.

In 1945, Charleston County sold the bridge to the state of South Carolina for $4,150,000.

On February 24, 1946, a freighter known as the Nicaragua Victory rammed into the bridge, ripping down a 240 ft section of it. 5 deaths occurred, all of whom where in the only vehicle that fell off the bridge. Their remains were uncovered one month later, intact inside the car. Because of this, a temporary bailey truss bridge was constructed so that the permanent one could undergo emergency repairs.

Tolls were charged to repay bonds until 1946, a few months after the bridges repairs were completed.

In 1959, widening occurred in order to construct a sidewalk-like breakdown lane on the southbound side.

By the 1960s, the Grace Memorial Bridge had become functionally insufficient, with its two 10 ft lanes built for Ford Model As and its poorly designed ramps that went up to six percent. Later, changes and modifications to the side rail, curbs, and lighting reduced the lane width even further. A ceremony to mark the start of construction of a second span known as the Silas N. Pearman Bridge was held on May 2, 1963. The US$15 million bridge opened to traffic on April 29, 1966. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by 500 people, significantly less than the Grace Memorial Bridge. This span was named for Silas Nathaniel Pearman, who served as chief engineer from 1947 to 1961 and then as chief commissioner from 1961 to 1976. Pearman graduated from Clemson University in 1924 and started at the highway department as a surveyor. He died in 1996. At this point, the Grace Memorial Bridge was retrofitted and converted to serve southbound traffic only.

In 1979, a third lane was added to the Grace Memorial Bridge at the Charleston approach.

In 1979, the Grace Memorial Bridge was posted with a 10 ton weight limit, and trucks were banned. Because of this, the reversible lane on the Pearman Bridge was made southbound permanently, ensuring that trucks had access across the Cooper River at all times. However, this meant that there was always oncoming traffic on the Pearman Bridge, causing many head-on collisions and resulting in many deaths and injuries. The load limit of the Grace Bridge was later reduced down to 5 tons.

Originally, US 701 concurred with US 17 (King Street) over the Bridges. In 1992, US 701's southern terminus was truncated in Georgetown, leaving behind a solo US 17 to travel over the bridges.

In order to reduce head-on collisions, SCDOT installed plastic delineators on the Pearman bridge in 2002.

Replacement
By 1979, both bridges had become functionally obsolete and there were plans to replace it, but they were ultimately scrapped as there was not enough money. In 1995, the Grace Memorial Bridge scored only a 4 out of 100 (4 percent), or an F, in safety. Arthur Ravenel Jr. ran for South Carolina Senate as a way to solve the problem. He planned for an eight-lane bridge to replace the aging Grace Memorial and dangerous Pearman Bridges that carried US 17. Construction started in 2001 and the new bridge opened in July 2005, at which point the Grace Memorial and Pearman Bridges closed to traffic permanently.



Demolition
After a "Burn The Bridges" run and a parade of 1929-era cars over the empty deck of the Grace Bridge, demolition of the Bridges began in August 2005. 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 start artificial fishing reefs. Demolition of the Grace & and Pearman Bridges took approximately 2 years and required closing the shipping lane for half a day as the main span was cut from the cantilever sections and lowered onto a barge below. The shipping lane was closed from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. for the lowering of the main span. One of the Pearman piers was left standing as a sort of memorial and recognition of the bridge's legacy, and can be seen by motorists entering the new bridge from East Bay Street in Charleston. The contractor had $2 1/2$ years to remove the two bridges and roads. Frank Starmer and Sparky Witte documented the demolition in a book entitled ''End of an Era.