Robin Goolsby prays outside the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston. (AP/Stephen B. Morton)  Several thousand people have joined hands on one of the longest bridges in the Americas, in a show of solidarity with the victims of the Charleston church massacre.  Participants formed a line across the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, over the Cooper River, to forge what organisers called a Bridge to Peace Unity Chain nearly 4km long.  The mood was a joyful counterpoint to the sombre atmosphere that loomed over a two-hour Sunday service at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church earlier in the day, which remembered the nine victims of last Wednesday's bloodbath.  A 21-year-old white male from South Carolina's interior, Dylann Roof, is charged with nine counts of murder in connection with the church shooting, which he reportedly hoped would ignite racial conflict.  "It's not black lives that matter anymore. All lives matter," said Black Lives Matter leader Jay Johnson to loud cheers from a mainly white crowd before the event kicked off.  "We are united as the human race," he said, stripping off his thick dark Black Lives Matter sweatshirt in the early evening heat and humidity.  Charleston church massacre accused Dylann Roof, left, has appeared in court via video link as members of the South Carolina community mourn the dead. (AAP)  Promoted on social media, the bridge event was organised in a matter of days by local housewives and the chief of Mount Pleasant's police department.  "This incredible turnout says it all," said organiser Dorsey Fairbairn at the event, where a bagpiper played Amazing Grace, a chaplain read a prayer, and vehicles crossing the span honked their horns in solidarity.  On the bridge and holding hands, participants observed nine minutes of silence, one for each of the shooting victims.  The span is the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere.  Do you have any news photos or videos?
A service has been held at a South Carolina church to celebrate the lives of nine people slain there by a white supremacist gunman.