Crossing the Cooper
Ferry service across the Cooper Ferries connected Mount Pleasant with Charleston as early as 1748, when Henry Gray was granted a charter between Charleston and Christ Church Parish. Ferry service continued from 1748 until 1923 when the first break in ferry service occurred. Residents were forced to use their own boats to cross the channel until the state of South Carolina formed the Cooper River Ferry Commission in 1924 and reinstated the ferry service.
John P. Grace Bridge
Named after a former mayor of Charleston, Groundbreaking for the John P. Grace bridge took place on Saturday, May 19, 1928, at the intersection of Lee and America Streets with over 2,000 people in attendance. Opening celebrations for the bridge were held over a three-day period from August 8-10, 1929. Over the entire weekend, 11,452 cars crossed the bridge transporting approximately 38,041 people.
Silas N. Pearman Bridge
By the 1960s the tremendous traffic flow across the bridge prompted the construction of a parallel bridge. Opened on April 29, 1966, the Silas N. Pearman Bridge, named for the then-South Carolina Highway Commissioner, significantly diminished traffic on the Grace Memorial Bridge. The Silas N. Pearman Bridge was 250 feet tall with a Clearance above the river of 155 feet. The Silas N. Pearman Bridge closed on July 16, 2005 with the opening of the Ravenel Bridge.
Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge
The two truss bridges had become functionally obsolete by 1979. Extensive metal deterioration caused by the lack of maintenance and narrow lanes made it difficult and unsafe for large trucks and busses to cross the bridges.
Raising financial support for a new eight-lane bridge over the Cooper River was a struggle 20 years in the making. Due to state senator Arthur Ravenel efforts in passing laws for the new bridge's funding, fellow lawmakers voted to name bridge the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. The overall price of the bridge totaled around $700 million. Charleston’s new bridge over the Cooper River is a cable-stayed suspension design with two diamond-shaped towers, each 575 feet high. The total length of the structure is 13,200 feet, with the main span stretching 1,546 feet between the towers. 128 individual cables anchored to the inside of the diamond towers suspend the deck 186 feet above the river. The roadway consists of eight 12-foot lanes, four in each direction as well as a 12-foot bicycle and pedestrian path to the design, which runs along the south edge of the bridge overlooking Charleston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. Groundbreaking on the bridge occurred in 2001 in Mount Pleasant. By the summer of 2002 the foundations for the towers and most of the piers were in place and the rock islands were completed. The first cables were hung from the towers in 2004 and sections of the deck were built outward from each of the towers as more cables were hung. Following a week-long celebration that included a public bridge walk, concerts, dinners, and fireworks, the bridge was dedicated and opened on July 16, 2005 – one year ahead of schedule and under budget.
To log this cache, e-mail the answers to the following questions. Do not post the answers in you log. Logs may be deleted if answers are not supplied or incorrect.
Questions:
1. What is the name of the tower where the cache is located?
2. There is a BLUE pole with a BLUE light on top of it, there is a black sign with white letters on the sign. What is written on the sign?
3. Post a picture with your log taken from Ground Zero facing toward Patriots Point (Aircraft carrier) DO NOT SEND ME YOUR PICTURES.
4. Optional post a picture of yourself at ground zero.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.