The Golden Gate Bridge is a world-renowned landmark, an icon of engineering and human know-how, vision and brawn.
It has also taken on a tragic reputation as the scene of thousands of suicides.
That reputation of being a place where far too many chose to end their lives and which even more family members and friends associate with the loss of loved ones is coming to an end.
The installation of safety nets below the bridge’s railing is designed to save lives, preventing people from making the 220-foot deadly fall in the bay.
Since the bridge opened for traffic in 1937, nearly 2,000 people have used the span to commit suicide. In some years, the numbers grew to 30 to 40 – nearly three to four every month.
Their families, local mental health specialists and a few people who survived their suicide attempts from the bridge for years urged bridge officials to take preventive action.
In fact, the toll of lives may have been greater had not the bridge district invested in staffing and training officers and workers to spot potential jumpers and coax them away from taking their lives. Over the years, they have saved hundreds.
But the stainless-steel net has been designed to dissuade those whom bridge officers can’t reach by halting their fall at 20 feet and catching them until rescuers can arrive.
Officials and dedicated advocates of the net hope that those intent on suicide have second thoughts when they see the net will prevent them from doing it.
Studies by Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley have shown that most of those stopped with an intent to commit suicide on the bridge will not try to kill themselves again.
Last year, with the nets under construction and partly completed, the number of suicides were reduced to 14, half of the average number before the nets were installed.
But as bridge officials have learned while the net has been under construction, a few have jumped from the net – a tragic outcome that was unexpected.
It is a sizable public investment – $224 million in federal, state and local funds. The loss over the years has also been significant and painful.
Few Bay Area lives have been untouched by the bridge’s suicides.
The nets were installed after many years of study, debate and advocacy to raise the needed funds.
Citizen advocates for the net, including many in Marin, were tireless.
Among their leaders was retired county coroner Kenneth Holmes, who pressed for solutions to the growing number of suicides to which he and his staff regularly responded.
The project has been met with delays, rising costs and a legal fight, but it has moved forward keeping the ultimate goal of saving lives in clear perspective.
For years the Golden Gate Bridge has been tainted by tragedy. The installation of suicide-prevention nets has been an almost Herculean task – in reaching political decisions, engineering, design and construction. Construction is slated to continue to full completion in 2026.
It has already saved lives. Hopefully, its presence will dissuade others.
