In a world where kidnappings call for immediate investigation and murders are quickly met with action by law enforcement, one can not help but wonder why suicides are not given the same attention. Over 1,800 lives have been lost and nearly a century has gone by, yet the question continues: why has it taken so long to prevent suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge?
Twenty feet below the 90-year-old landmark lies a net. This safety net, built to save people from jumping off the bridge, took several years to construct and cost around $215 million. The suicide deterrent system was officially completed on Jan. 1, 2024, yet people are beginning to question its effectiveness. Were the resources spent on these deterrents worth it for long-term suicide prevention, or will the net simply redirect potential victims of suicide?
History
According to the National Institute of Health, the Golden Gate Bridge is the number one suicide location in the world, with an estimated 1,800 people having jumped off the bridge.
John Bateson is a member of the Bridge Rail Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention on the Golden Gate Bridge. Bateson has spent over 25 years in the mental health field and 10 years volunteering for the Bridge Rail Foundation. He described the bridge as being an “easy” place for suicide because up until the installation of the safety net, there was only a four-foot-high fence stopping people from jumping off.
“Having the Golden Gate Bridge so close by is equivalent to having a loaded firearm on your kitchen table." -John Bateson
"It’s a shocking metaphor, but it helps signify how easy it was to surmount the railing and how fatal it was. The drop is 25 stories, [so] you are almost assured of dying on impact,” Bateson said.
The bridge’s reputation even stretches across continents, drawing in people through what is called “suicide tourism.” According to Tourism Teacher, this term describes the “act of traveling to a new destination to commit either suicide or assisted suicide.”
Austin King, Tamalpais High School parent and retired United States Park Police Sergeant, has witnessed multiple suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge from people of all demographics.
“I've had scenarios where someone would jump [off] the bridge and then we'd find their parked car in a nearby parking lot [with] a passport from Germany. They weren't even from the Bay Area, let alone California, let alone the country. They traveled here to [die by suicide on] this particular bridge,” King said.
Similarly, Golden Gate Bridge Board of Supervisors Member, Matt Dorsey, has seen the bridge through the lens of a professional but also a human being.
“10 or 15 years ago, there was somebody who jumped [off the bridge] and I saw it. It was heartbreaking to watch and it was terrifying. [As a person], it's a difficult thing to process,” Dorsey said.
The Deterrent
Even though construction started in 2018, the net surrounding the bridge was only recently finished. It is made out of a horizontal stainless steel wire rope net, which is stretched across support struts under the bridge.
Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, the Director of Public Affairs for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, explained the construction of the net.
“There's now a continuous physical suicide barrier, the full length of the bridge. About 95 percent of that is net or the suicide deterrent system. [On] the remaining section, because of design factors, we've installed temporary vertical fencing that also acts as a deterrent,” Cosulich-Schwartz said.
The deterrent has been a controversial topic since its approval in 2014. Many believe the funds may have been misused, claiming the money should have gone toward mental health resources rather than a physical deterrent. However, this idea may stem from a lack of knowledge surrounding funding for this project.
According to the Golden Gate Bridge website, the majority of the funding came from transportation commissions and budgets, while only $7 million out of the $215 million came from mental health funds.
Bateson explained why he thinks it took so long for construction to begin.
“For a long time, various mental health professionals came before the board or the bridge district and presented a rational, empirical, data-driven argument about why the bridge district needed to take action to end suicides, and invariably, that plea fell on deaf ears. It was only when families who lost loved ones on the bridge became more vocal about their pain and their stories, that momentum started to shift,” Bateson said.
Cosulich-Schwartz explained another reason why the process took so long, attributing it to shifting perspectives about mental health.
“Just two or three decades ago, we didn't talk about suicide and mental health in the same way that we do today. It was not until the mid-2000s that attitudes started to change both amongst society and among our board,” Cosulich-Schwartz said. “For a very long time, there was shame or guilt around this. As attitudes changed, so did the conversation at our board around building a barrier.”
Perspectives
Debates about the net’s effectiveness, or lack thereof, have continued up until recently. King is in support of the actions taken by the Golden Gate Bridge Committee to construct the deterrents, but is wary about the overall outcome the net will bring.
“Will it prevent suicides on the bridge? Yes. Will it prevent suicides in general? I hate to say I don't think it will. I think they'll find other ways to end their lives,” King said. “After one person I was talking with on the bridge ended up jumping, I came to the conclusion that, if there is someone who wants to kill themselves, unfortunately, they're going to do it eventually.”
However, others like Bateson believe steel netting will largely prevent suicide.
“People who are opposed to a barrier on the bridge for financial or aesthetic reasons believe that if someone was suicidal and the bridge wasn't available to them, they would just kill themselves another way. And in fact, research shows that that's not at all true,” Bateson said. “Most people have fixated on one means of death, and if that means isn't available to them, they don't resort to another means. Instead, they choose to live.”
Bateson went on to describe a research study conducted to prove this theory.
“A [University of California] Berkeley professor got the names of 515 people who had been stopped from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He tracked what happened to those 515 people [for] 26 years. [After] 26 years, 94 percent of them were still alive, or had died by means other than suicide,” Bateson said.
Dorsey is another person who believes the net will have a long-lasting positive impact.
“There were a lot of arguments over the years, about what it would look like, how it would work, whether it would work, [but] I think most of those arguments are over. The numbers seem to suggest that it is working and that it was a worthwhile investment,” Dorsey said.
Despite these differing perspectives, research continues to show that this net will be effective in reducing the number of suicides.
Changing the Narrative
Though this net was mainly installed to prevent suicides, it can help change the reputation of the bridge as a suicide destination. According to the Centre for Suicide Prevention, a suicide destination is defined as “A specific, usually public, site which is frequently used as a location for suicide and which provides either means or opportunity for suicide.”
Among other locations such as Aokigahara Forest in Japan and Niagara Falls in Canada and New York, the Golden Gate Bridge is the most popular suicide tourism destination in the world. Bateson describes the bridge as having both literal and metaphorical appeal.
“The Golden Gate Bridge, by virtue of its location, is a magnificent setting. … It exerts not only a siren's call but also [a] feeling that ‘Maybe I'm depressed and lonely, but in my death, I'm gonna join thousands of other people who have died the same way,’” Bateson said.
To combat this notion, the net will change not only the reputation of this landmark but also the mindsets of people around the world and in our community.
“[The deterrent] provides people a symbol of hope and care,” Cosulich-Schwartz said. “So for people who may be coming to the bridge to harm themselves, they often talk about wanting [to look] for signs that people out there care about them. [This] is a permanent, visible sign that the community cares about you.”
If you or someone you know may be having thoughts of suicide, call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.