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."

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.

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.

[2] 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.".

Construction lasted seventeen months, and the final cost of the bridge was six million dollars.

The Cooper River Bridge Corporation continued to struggle with tax problems, but finally convinced the city and the county to reduce their assessments in both 1932 and 1934.

In 1936, Cooper River Bridge, Inc filed for reorganization under bankruptcy laws after experiencing financial problems from the near start, citing a $487,879 deficit.

As early as the 1930s, state transportation officials were discussing the idea of buying the Cooper River Bridge.

Locals disliked the tolls, regarding them as a hindrance to economic development and tourism as well as regional growth.

On February 24, 1946, a 12,000-ton cargo ship known as the Nicaragua Victory broke loose from its mooring in the Cooper River.

Its bow became stuck in the mud, but the stern shifted, slamming into the Grace Memorial Bridge as traffic was crossing.

The accident damaged one of the bridge's piers, caused a 240-foot (73 m) section of the mid-strcture to collapse, and snapped the power cables on the deck which then exploded.

In April 1946, a temporary bailey truss was constructed over the damaged section of the bridge so that the permanent one could be rebuilt.

However, due to weight limitations, any truck or bus more than 12 tons was denied access and had to turn around.

Work was completed in June of that year, and the entire cost was covered by taxpayer dollars.

The three collapsed spans 240 feet (73 m) were replaced, power lines were re-wired, and the bridge redecked in the damaged part, at which point the temporary truss was removed.

As early as the late 1950s, the Grace Memorial Bridge had been deemed functionally obsolete, with its two 10-foot (3.0 m) lanes built for Ford Model As and its poorly designed ramps that went up to six percent.

These included rebuilding the Grace bridge's Charleston approach, which involved rebuilding some of the at-grade intersections into interchanges and eliminating the rest, adding an extra lane and widening the other two; replacing signage, and extending the approach to the newly built Interstate 26.

[16] In 1979, the Grace Memorial bridge was posted with a 10 ton weight limit, and trucks were banned.

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.

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

The foundations were usually the first part of the bridge support detonated, with the fully exposed pier being demolished second.

The mid segment was cut away from the cantilever sections and lowered onto a barge, which was then carried off to be used as scrap metal.