List of golden gate bridge jumpers

Shortly after ten-thirty in the morning on Wednesday, March 19th, a real-estate agent named Paul Alarab began hiking across the Golden Gate Bridge. Midway along the walkway, which carries pedestrians and cyclists between San Francisco and Marin County, he stopped and climbed the four-foot safety railing.

Between and , an estimated 1, 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 , potential jumpers were talked down from their attempts and did not jump. 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 , 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. The deck of the bridge is about feet 75 m above the water.

List of golden gate bridge jumpers

Historical Essays. San Francisco celebrated the bridge's opening in , and less than three months later, H. Wobber, a year-old bargeman, strolled across it chatting with a tourist and then, halfway back, climbed up and over the railing, without explanation and much to the tourists alarm. Since then, more than people have jumped to their deaths, and many who jumped unseen, perhaps at night or in fog, and perhaps including Weldon Kees, have washed to sea uncounted. A strong current runs oceanward beneath the bridge and sharks feed there and beyond. Suicide is only one of many dramas acted out on the bridge; the city's landmark structure has long been a stage for street theater. Protesters stopped bridge traffic to protest the Gulf War, the politics of AIDS research, and most recently, corporate plans to cut down the ancient redwoods of the Headwaters Forest. Local legend has it that draft dodgers climbed the bridge towers and threatened to jump to earn mentally unfit draft status during the Vietnam War. While bridge theater has ranged from the revolutionary to the farcical, suicide has been the tragic and most oft repeated performance. Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple, delivered one of the most momentous bridge soliloquies on Memorial Day, , when he and a group of his followers joined anti-suicide activists in the bridge toll plaza to commemorate bridge suicides and demand the erection of a preventive barrier atop the railing. Jones, by then feeling persecuted by defectors, media, and government, told the crowd that he had been in a suicidal mood himself that day, and that he had personal empathy for what we are doing here today. The next year, on November 18, , he and followers committed mass suicide at their compound in Guyana, after killing all their dogs, fish, and farm animals along with their pet chimpanzee, Mr.

California 4 Chileans stole from homes across L. The majority of Americans who die by suicide—more than 60 percent—use a firearm. Local legend has it that draft dodgers climbed the bridge towers and threatened to jump to earn mentally unfit draft status during the Vietnam War.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened in It was the first bridge in the world to be built at the mouth of a major harbor, and as such had to be tall enough so that large ships could pass underneath. Original designs for the bridge called for a taller railing specifically to prevent against suicides. In a last-minute design decision, the railing was lowered to its present four-foot-height to enhance the view. At various times, 19 men fell into the net accidentally and were saved.

Shortly after ten-thirty in the morning on Wednesday, March 19th, a real-estate agent named Paul Alarab began hiking across the Golden Gate Bridge. Midway along the walkway, which carries pedestrians and cyclists between San Francisco and Marin County, he stopped and climbed the four-foot safety railing. On a sunny day, as this day was, the view is glorious: Angel Island to the left, Alcatraz straight ahead, Treasure Island farther off, bisecting the long gray tangent of the Bay Bridge, and, layered across the hills to the south, San Francisco. Alarab turned and looped a thick rope over the railing, then wound it around his right wrist five times and grabbed it with his gloved right hand. Through the palings of the bridge rail and the rush of traffic, he could see the mouth of the Bay to the west and the Pacific beyond. Clasping a typed statement to his chest with his left hand, he leaned backward, away from the railing, and waited for help to arrive. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text or chat at Lifeline. Alarab told them that he wanted to speak to the media. As it happened, a number of TV crews were at the south end of the bridge, filming standups about heightened terrorism precautions. His weight proved too much for the apparatus, and the can broke free with him inside.

List of golden gate bridge jumpers

Posted September 29, Reviewed by Jessica Schrader. In the summer of , Ken Baldwin decided to commit suicide. He had suffered from depression since his teens, and now, at the age of 28, the stress and sleeplessness of new parenthood made his condition much worse. There was a voice inside his head telling him that he was a failure, a waste of space, and he was convinced his wife and young child would be better off without him. He'd tried to kill himself once before, with an overdose of painkillers, but this time he was determined to succeed. He told his wife he would be back late from work and drove 3 hours from his home to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge is the most popular suicide spot in the United States, perhaps even in the world. In the 75 years since its opening, at least 1, people have committed suicide there, an average of almost 20 people per year, or one person every 16 days. The bridge is so popular partly because of its beautiful and romantic location, but also because it's such a failsafe way of dying.

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Some — particularly on the far left — would like to see Feinstein go and someone more liberal and theatrical take her place. Archived from the original on July 17, The Golden Gate Bridge, for my dead friend, turned out to be a mute monument of misery. Lewis Neylor, a college professor from Connecticut on vacation in the San Francisco area. Numerous studies were conducted, but in the end the findings were ignored and recommendations to construct a suicide barrier on the bridge were defeated. Retrieved March 15, Retrieved September 29, In addition to Golden Gate bridge patrol, law enforcement, and emergency medical personnel, there are Golden Gate Bridge ironworkers who volunteer their time to prevent suicides by talking to or wrestling down suicidal people. The bridge board would not approve it, however. That June, trying to stop the countdown fever, the California Highway Patrol halted its official count at

Between and , an estimated 1, bodies were recovered of people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge , located in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States.

District officials attributed the delay to the original lead contractor, Shimmick Construction, having underbid the project, and to its acquisition by AECOM. Imrie used the property with due care for the purposes it was designed. Archived from the original on December 26, Retrieved October 21, Jumpers fall feet in four seconds at a speed of 75 miles per hour—equivalent to a pedestrian being struck by a car that is traveling that fast. Even before completion, the new suicide prevention barrier was having a significant effect in reducing number of jumpers. Now, to be counted in San Francisco, one has to jump far enough on the city side to land on the ground. SF Appeal. Following further, experimental surgery, he made a complete recovery. Kevin Hines was eighteen when he took a municipal bus to the bridge one day in September, While one function of the net is hindering anyone who does land on it from taking further action, the overriding aim is to deter people from jumping in the first place. The youngest suicide was five-year-old Marilyn DeMont in