Editor's Notes

By Bob Bouyea

Do you remember your first time? Remember how your heart was racing and your breathing became quicker? How your palms sweated as you held on with a white-knuckled grip? How you stared straight ahead, wishing you could close you eyes until it was over?

Of course, I am talking about the first time you drove across the John P. Grace Memorial Bridge.

This bridge has to be one of the longest and narrowest bridges in the country. It was the fifth longest when it was first built. If you never drove over this bridge, your days to experience it are numbered. The Grace bridge, built in 1929, and the Silas N. Pearman Bridge, built in 1966, will be closed to traffic on July 16, with demolition slated to begin 30 days later.

My first time driving over the bridge was about seven months ago. As I approached the bridge, I could not believe how narrow it is. That and the fact that it is pocked with rust made it intimidating.

The first few times across, I got in the right-hand lane and stayed there, regardless of how slow the car in front of me was going. I refused to pass, knowing if I did, that would be when the car decided to lurch into the general direction of the trusses, and I would be fodder for the 6 p.m. news. I looked straight ahead, allowing myself a few quick glances toward the sides to gauge how close I was from the edge and its sheer drop-off.

I slowly made my way across the span with traffic rushing past me.

One day, I ventured into the left-hand lane, and as I did, I felt my grip tighten and my heart race faster as I became concerned by the fact that I could see water as I stared out my front windshield.

Today, I am old hat at it and can tell who is new to the Grace as I zip by them. And I wonder what it must have been like when the Grace bridge was the only bridge. Drivers shared the road with oncoming traffic, including trucks and buses. During the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, automobiles grew larger leaving little room for error.

The Grace has seen a lot of traffic pass over her throughout the years, despite her aging bones. And she has also seen a lot of traffic pass under her in the form of merchant ships and Navy ships.

She has been the gateway to the region for 76 years, sending soldiers off to war and welcoming them home again. She has stood up to hurricanes and many other tests of time.

Now let’s bid her a fond farewell and hope the roomier Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge serves us as Gracefully.

The kissing your sister award. EADS North America decided to locate an engineering center and possibly build a refueling tanker aircraft manufacturing plant in Mobile, Ala., instead of North Charleston.

We seemingly had a good shot at the facility, boasting one of the most efficiently run ports in the nation, good rail and roadway infrastructure into the site area, and the fact that the Air Force, the branch of the military to which EADS wants to sell the tanker, has a significant presence here.

But listening to the company, having a port 2,000 feet from the manufacturing site trumped all other benefits from the other sites.

However, Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., says incentives played a larger role in the decision than the company is letting on. The company told him that Alabama offered a 2-to-1 incentive package.

If that is true, then Alabama can have the facility, and I applaud our leaders for not giving away the store, especially in light of the fact that EADS does not have a contract with the Air Force to provide the tankers, and we can use the money to strengthen our education system and improve our roadways.

Now EADS did not leave us flat, no sir. It threw a bone our way, maybe as a gesture of thanks for the time and effort our leaders put into this project.

The company is giving each finalist state a five-year, $100,000 grant with which the states are to create a tri-state university-level engineering internship and cooperative program at the engineering center in Mobile. The grant was offered because the company was so impressed by each of the four sites.

My first reaction was “Geez, don’t hurt yourself.” $100,000 over five years would barely cover one student’s tuition and room and board at a public university. On the other hand, they did not have to do that much, and it may lead to some exciting opportunities for some of our students. But it still feels like we got the “Kissing Your Sister” award.

At least it was not the “It’s Not You, It’s Me” award.

Bob Bouyea is the executive editor for the Business Journal. E-mail him at bbouyea@crbj.com.

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