For David Shorter, Thursday morning brought back a monumental memory.
He was in the seventh or eighth grade at West Ashley’s Blessed Sacrament School in the 1960s when a construction crew installed the twin spires atop the new Catholic church next door. The schoolchildren were allowed to step over the steeples before they were hoisted into place.
Of course, Shorter also remembers them being blown down by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and the church’s brick towers have stood unadorned ever since. At least until Thursday.
Shorter was among a few dozen who gathered just outside the church to watch as a construction crew hoisted the first steeple back into place.
“I ain’t missing this for no reason,” he said. “Twice in a lifetime.”
The spectacle was so dramatic that those involved waited until after the morning rush hour on Savannah Highway, reducing the chance of causing any wrecks. Thursday’s weather was near perfect: clear skies and only the slightest breeze. But a computer glitch with a construction crane ended up delaying the lift until the lunch hour.
But by 1:20 p.m., the first one — weighing almost 3 tons — was stood up and hoisted off the ground….
A few dozen gathered just outside the church to watch as a construction crew hoisted the first steeple back into place.https://t.co/xzmq5NlGiL
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) August 2, 2019