The Bridge

Charleston South Carolina is my favorite place on Earth. It is where I am from. It has always been a special place for me. In the city, there has always been one specific, iconic feature for me. The Cooper River Bridge. Its actually two bridges. The John Grace Bridge, built in 1928 and the Silas Pearman Bridge, built in the Mid 1960's. Usually just known as the Grace Bridge and the New Bridge or both simply as The Cooper River Bridge. They have been a part of the Charleston skyline for a very long time.


Time has taken its toll on the Bridges and for many many years Charleston fought to have a new one built. One bridge is 77 years old. The other, was not built big enough and was considered out-of-date just 10 years after completion. Increased traffic, both on the bridge and below is the biggest reason for replacement. The bridges weren't high enough, and the shipping gap not wide enough to accomodate the newer larger ships.
Money, of course, was the biggest obstacle. That, and a string of Governors from the upstate who wanted to pretend that the second largest port on the East Coast did not really concern the rest of the state and would not support any funding. ***errrrrr Politics. Sorry about that. There is little dislike more than talking about politics. I ll try not to let it happen again**** So after many many years of work, the money was found. Plus some help from Former Gov. Jim Hodges. Hey thanks for the Bridge Jim, how bout stay out of our football team's locker room. (more on that later)

In 2001, ground was broken on a project that was to take 5 years and cost 600 million dollars. The New Cooper River Bridge.
The new Bridge would be more than twice as high as the previous bridges. It will be the dominant feature of the city of Charleston for the next 100 years. As construction got underway, I followed pretty closely. I moved out west in summer of 2003. But I have still followed the project. http://www.cooperriverbridge.org was quite helpful in that task. I visited Charleston again in December of 04. The final connecting pieces of the new bridge were put into place. I drove across to Mt. Pleasant so that I could get some real Barbeque from Melvin's and I drove back for the last time on the rickety old Grace Bridge. *tear*

So tonight, 1 year ahead of schedule Charleston is presenting the opening of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, or the new Cooper River Bridge. A thirty minute fireworks display and official lighting of the bridge took place tonight, while the public will drive on it for the first time on Saturday.

It is not the longest bridge in the world, and it is not the widest. However, it is the longest widest bridge in the world.