chuckography

Old photos of the Old Cooper River bridge..

Now that the last of the Grace bridge has been blasted down, I would like to share some photos from the Boyd family album taken when the Grace was going up. My grandmother was into the Charleston hospitality industry early on. She was f&b at the Charleston Country Club in the early 1920s, ran a boarding house in the late 20s and was head of a Navy Yard canteen (kitchen/messhall) during WWII. Her boarding house on Meeting Street was home to several steel workers on the 2-lane Grace bridge as well as a supervisor. Since he was a guy in charge, he took my grandmother up onto the bridge in the middle of construction. It's 1928 and no hard hat for Granny. There she was in her stylish cloche hat, dusty patent leather shoes and a prim purse next to the tracks used to haul steel up the span. He also gave her several photographs that I shared with the Post and Courier when it was doing a 75th anniversary issue about the bridge. The Boyd bridge connection continued in 1946 when my dad, her son, worked on the Bailey Bridge to reconnect the Grace when the span was knocked out. Finally, during a visit in 1964, I was able to balance a camera and snap a picture while driving over the Grace in heavy 2-way traffic as I had done many times while growing up in Charleston. (Many times driving over the bridge, not many times taking pictures.) I survived that crossing. Yes, I do have a LARGE piece of the Grace on display in my home.

Labels: boarding house, bridge construction, canteen, Charleston Country Club, Charleston Navy Yard, Grace Memorial Bridge

posted by chucker @ 11:04 AM