Between 1937 and 2012, an estimated 1,400 bodies were recovered of people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge, located in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States.
In 2013, 118 potential jumpers were talked
down from their attempt and did not jump.
As of 2013, it is estimated that 34 people have survived after jumping. Some die instantly from internal injuries,
while others drown or die of hypothermia.
A number of measures are in place to
discourage people from jumping, including telephone hotlines and patrols by
emergency personnel and bridge workers. Although it had previously been
considered impractical to build a suicide barrier, in 2014, the bridge's
directors approved a proposal for a net below the bridge's deck, extending out
either side, rather than side barriers at the railings as had long been
proposed.
Background
The Golden Gate Bridge is referred to by
Krista Tippett as a "suicide magnet."
The deck is about 245 feet (75 m) above the water. After a fall of four seconds, jumpers hit the
water at around 75 mph (120 km/h). Most of the jumpers die due to impact trauma.
About 5% of the jumpers survive the
initial impact but generally drown or die of hypothermia in the cold water.
Most suicidal jumps from the bridge have
occurred on the side facing the bay. The side facing the Pacific is closed to
pedestrians.
An official suicide count was kept until
the year 1995, sorted according to which of the bridge's 128 lamp posts the
jumper was nearest when he or she jumped.
The official count ended on June 5, 1995 on the 997th jump; jumper No.
1000, Eric Atkinson (25), jumped on July 3, 1995. Earlier in 1995, a local shock jock had
offered a case of Snapple to the family of the 1000th suicide victim. Consequently, Marin County coroner Ken Holmes
asked local media to stop reporting the total number of jumpers. By 2012 the unofficial count exceeded 1,600
(in which the body was recovered or someone saw the jump) and new suicides were
occurring about once every two weeks, according to a San Francisco Chronicle
analysis. The most suicides in one
month were in August 2013, when 10 jumped. The total count for the year 2013
was 46, with an additional 118 attempts prevented, making it the year with the
highest tally so far. The rate of
incidence of attempts has risen to nearly one every other day. The youngest known jumper is five-year-old
Marilyn DeMont; in 1945, she was told to jump by her father who followed her.
For comparison, the Aokigahara Forest in
Japan, has a record of 108 bodies, found within the forest in 2004, with an
average of 30 a year. There were 34
bridge-jump suicides in 2006 whose bodies were recovered, in addition to four
jumps that were witnessed but whose bodies were never recovered, and several
bodies recovered suspected to be from bridge jumps. The California Highway
Patrol removed 70 apparently suicidal people from the bridge that year.
There is no accurate figure on the
number of suicides or completed jumps since 1937, because many were not
witnessed. People have been known to travel to San Francisco specifically to
jump off the bridge, and may take a bus or cab to the site; police sometimes
find abandoned rental cars in the parking lot. Currents beneath the bridge are
strong and some jumpers have more than likely been washed out to sea without
being seen.
The fatality rate of jumping is roughly
98%. As of July 2013, only 34 people are known to have survived the jump. Those who do survive strike the water
feet-first and at a slight angle, although individuals may still sustain broken
bones or internal injuries. One young woman, Sarah Rutledge Birnbaum, survived,
but returned to jump again and died the second time. One young man survived a jump in 1979, swam
to shore, and drove himself to a hospital. The impact cracked several of his vertebrae.
Engineering professor Natalie
Jeremijenko, as part of her "Bureau of Inverse Technology" art
collective, created a "Despondency Index" by correlating the Dow
Jones Industrial Average with the number of jumpers detected by "Suicide
Boxes" containing motion-detecting cameras, which she claimed to have set
up under the bridge. The boxes
purportedly recorded 17 jumps in three months, far greater than the official
count. The Whitney Museum, although questioning whether Jeremijenko's
suicide-detection technology actually existed, nevertheless included her
project in its prestigious Whitney Biennial.
False Suicides and Survivors
Along with confirmed suicide deaths and
suicide attempts at the bridge, there have been false suicides as well. The
first documented case of "pseudocide" at the Golden Gate Bridge was
in 1948. 47-year-old Chris J. Christensen was a well-known local jeweler who
had been recently elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Christensen's coat was found attached to a
work box at the center span of the bridge with a note in the coat that read,
"Loved Ones: My nerves are shot. Please forgive me. Chris." Believed
to have jumped from the bridge, Christensen was declared dead and rumors
abounded. Investigators concluded he was unable to cope with the pressures of
being in public office. There were reports of Christensen having become
friendly with a man described as "willowy ... almost too good-looking to
be considered handsome." While Christensen introduced the man to friends
and colleagues as his nephew, it was learned the man was not a relative;
rather, he was a Navy sailor whom Christensen met in a Los Angeles bar. Over a
year had passed when it was discovered Christensen was actually alive and
selling Bibles in Houston, Texas. Found
living in a low-rent rooming house and having lost 40 pounds, Christensen
explained that campaign contributors who supported his election had asked him
to "do things he couldn't do". Christensen saw himself as a failure
and never returned to San Francisco.
In 1985, 28-year-old Kenneth Baldwin
jumped over and survived. Rescued by the US Coast Guard, he suffered a few
broken ribs and a bruised lung.
On September 24, 2000, Kevin Hines was
19 years old, paranoid, and hallucinating when he jumped off the Golden Gate
Bridge. Throwing himself headfirst over the bridge railing, he fell 220 feet
into San Francisco Bay. During the fall, his body rotated so that when Hines
hit the water he landed in a sitting position, taking the impact in his legs
and up through his back. Three of his vertebrae were shattered, lacerating his
lower internal organs. A United States Coast Guard vessel rescued him, and he
was transported to a hospital in San Francisco where he received emergency
surgery. Following further, experimental surgery, any physical evidence of his
experience is almost non-existent, and Hines has full mobility. Regarding his
thoughts after the jump, Hines stated, "There was a millisecond of free
fall. In that instant, I thought, what have I just done? I don't want to die.
God, please save me." Following his suicide attempt, Hines received some
notoriety as a survivor, appearing in a documentary film, The Bridge (2006)
and being interviewed on CNN by Larry King. Additionally, he wrote a book about his
experience before and after his suicide attempt, Cracked, Not Broken,
and became a mental health advocate as well as a proponent for a bridge suicide
barrier or net to prevent such incidents.
On March 10, 2011, 17-year-old Luhe
"Otter" Vilagomez from Windsor High School in Windsor, California,
survived a jump from the bridge, breaking his coccyx and puncturing one lung,
though he said his attempt was for "fun" and not suicide. The teen
was helped to shore by Frederic Lecouturier, 55, who was surfing under the
bridge when he saw Vilagomez jump. The
California Highway Patrol recommended the San Francisco District Attorney's
Office charge the student with misdemeanor trespassing (a charge that entails
climbing any rail, cable, suspender rope, tower or superstructure not intended
for public use), punishable by up to a year in the county jail and/or a fine up
to $10,000, and that the teenager undergo a medical/psychiatric evaluation by
medical professionals.
Prevention and Intervention
Various methods have been tried to
reduce the number of suicides. The bridge is fitted with suicide-hotline telephones
and staff patrol the bridge in carts, looking for people who appear to be
planning to jump. The bridge is now closed to pedestrians at night. Cyclists
are still permitted across at night, but can buzz themselves in and out through
the remotely controlled security gates. Attempts
to introduce a suicide barrier have been thwarted by engineering difficulties,
high costs, and public opposition. One
recurring proposal had been to build a barrier to replace or augment the low
railing, a component of the bridge's original architectural design, as amended
by the second designer in the final blueprint.
New barriers have eliminated suicides at other landmarks around the
world, but were opposed for the Golden Gate Bridge for reasons of cost,
aesthetics, and safety, as the load from a poorly designed barrier could
significantly affect the bridge's structural integrity during a strong
windstorm. Despite these concerns, on June 27, 2014, California approved a
funding plan to install a suicide barrier.
A volunteer group called the Bridgewatch
Angels was founded by Pleasanton Police Lieutenant, Mia Munayer, in 2011.
During every major holiday and while off-duty, Munayer mobilizes hundreds of
volunteers to patrol the bridge looking for anyone who may be contemplating
suicide. Before embarking on their morning or afternoon shifts, Bridgewatch
Angels volunteers receive training on the warning signs of someone in crisis,
indirect and direct ways to engage with people walking alone on the bridge, and
safety protocol when interacting with a suicidal person requiring police
intervention. Each Bridgewatch event is dedicated to the memory of a person who
jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge and their family joins the Bridgewatch
Angels as they walk together to honor the memory of their loved one. The
Bridgewatch Angels are credited with making dozens of interventions each year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicides_at_the_Golden_Gate_Bridge
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