Families who have lost loved ones to suicide have long awaited a suicide prevention barrier at the Golden Gate Bridge.
As of January 1, 2024, the iconic San Francisco structure now has a continuous physical suicide barrier installed to the full length of the 1.7-mile bridge. This development marks the culmination of a tireless campaign advocated by families affected by suicide. According to BBC, around 2,000 people are known to have jumped to their deaths from the bridge since it opened in 1937.
"The purpose of the net is to reduce the number of deaths associated with individuals jumping off the Bridge." The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District went on to say in a statement. The organization went on to reveal that "the net is a proven design that deters people from jumping, serves as a symbol of care and hope to despondent individuals, and, if necessary, offers people a second chance."
However, this was not an easy process. Despite the suicide prevention net being approved in 2014, construction did not start until four years later. There had been pushback from those who claimed it affected the view or was too high in cost.
Kevin Hines miraculously survived his suicide attempt in September 2000. The AP reported Hines is one of about 40 people who survived after jumping off the bridge. He had been battling with bipolar disorder, 19 at the time, when he released his hands from the rail and plunged the equivalent of 25 stories into the Pacific Ocean, breaking his back. Hines later said he regretted jumping off the bridge the moment his hands released the rail.
"Had the net been there, I would have been stopped by the police and gotten the help I needed immediately and never broken my back, never shattered three vertebrae, and never been on this path I was on," Hines, now a suicide-prevention advocate, told the Associated Press. "I'm so grateful that a small group of like-minded people never gave up on something so important."
The group had originally advocated for raising the height of the bridge's railing but the proposal was swiftly shut down because it would have blocked the sweeping views of the bay. They later advocated for a suicide net based on the success of similar installations in places like Bern, Switzerland.
The Guardian reported Heather Quisenberry, who lost her son to suicide at the bridge, described the completion as bittersweet. "On the one hand, I'm grateful that the net that we fought for, for so long will be complete and that it will stop future suicides from happening on that bridge," she said. "But on the other hand, if some suicide deterrent had been installed sooner, my son and others may have not had to die."
The barriers are already working as hoped, said Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, the public affairs director for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District [the entity that oversees the structure.] As the project neared completion in 2023, the number of people who jumped fell by more than half.
A commemoration ceremony to mark the completion of the net is expected to take place in April.
