75 years and still no barrier

As San Francisco hosts a citywide birthday party for the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary, one thing that won't be celebrated is the fact that the bridge (pictured) continues to be the world's top suicide site. Since it opened on May 27, 1937, there have been an estimated 1,600 deaths in which the body was recovered, and many more unconfirmed. The data for 2011 underscores this reality: 37 people died jumping off the bridge last year, according to the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District. That's the second-highest total in 15 years and the fourth highest in the bridge's history. An additional 100 people were stopped from jumping. The alarming number of suicides, year in and year out, tells the dark history of this iconic public structure. While we rightly admire the bridge's beauty, grandeur, engineering, and construction, how does one come to terms with this terrible allure? The solution is simple: put a net under the bridge. The original design called for a higher railing along the walkways specifically to prevent suicides, but in a last-minute decision, the railing was lowered to enhance the view. As a result, almost anyone can climb over it, or be thrown over it. In 2008, bridge district officials finally voted to add a suicide deterrent to the bridge: a marine-grade stainless steel net that will stretch 20 feet below the walkways. It won't be much different than the net that the bridge's chief engineer, Joseph Strauss, installed to protect workers during construction — a net that saved 19 men. However, nobody has done anything about this, and San Francisco will continue to be a suicide hotspot unless somebody fixes up the lack of protection on the Golden Gate Bridge. Sadly, there are at least two good reasons for not doing so: some people oppose a barrier because of the cost (yet the bridge district has spent millions of dollars on other public safety improvements over the years that affect far fewer people,) and some oppose a barrier because they think it will mar the aesthetics of the bridge (yet other once-famous suicide sites have incorporated barriers with little or no visual impact.) But the fact of the matter is that more people die by suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge than at any other site in the world. The deck is approximately 75 metres above the water. After a fall of approximately four seconds, jumpers hit the water at around 120 km/h. Most jumpers die from impact trauma on contact with the water. The few who survive the initial impact generally drown or die of hypothermia in the cold water. For this dark reason, the famed bridge is a public health hazard and it needs adequate barriers to stop suicides. There are even bellends who come to San Francisco from all over the world just to jump off the bridge, and unless this trend stops, then people will keep killing themselves in this manner.