Barrier’s beauty
Opponents of a Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier long argued, among other things, that it might mar the span’s aesthetics. A more expansive definition of beauty would embrace the extraordinary effort to save lives.
Families and friends of those lost to bridge suicides joined officials this week in marking the start of construction of a steel net to run the nearly 9,000-foot length of the span. Proposed and rejected at least as long ago as the 1970s, and haltingly planned since 2005, the barrier represents a belated victory of our most humane impulses.
The renowned symbol of San Francisco and American ingenuity also holds awful allure for the troubled, often young people and frequently traveling from afar, as The Chronicle, the New Yorker, and others have documented. Starting with a World War I veteran who jumped the railing two months after the bridge opened in 1937, more than 1,600 people are thought to have killed themselves at the Golden Gate, making it the country’s top suicide site. Despite the admirable efforts of officers and volunteers who have rescued many more, the deaths continue at a rate of about one every two weeks.
Those dissuaded from such an end usually recover and go on to live full lives, research has shown, making the significant expense of the net worthwhile. Over the decades, officials and observers have thought of many reasons not to build a suicide barrier. Those who have lost loved ones to the Golden Gate Bridge, understandably, can’t think of one.