In his original design for the Golden Gate Bridge, engineer Joseph Strauss included a structure to deter suicide. He specified a safety railing of five feet six inches, capped in a manner difficult for any climber to grasp. Strauss advertised the bridge through the press as practically suicide-proof. Architect Irving Morrow changed that design, and specified a lower railing.
Within weeks of the 1937 opening, the Golden Gate Bridge witnessed its first suicide. In early 1939, with the Bridge open only 18 months, the suicide count reached 11 and the California Highway Patrol began to express its concern publicly.
The Bridge District's first "study" of the problem was in 1948. Engineers recommended a solution in 1953. By 1962, there was a suicide from the Bridge every other week. Though individual years vary, two confirmed deaths per month has been the average suicide rate from the Golden Gate Bridge for more than 40 years.
In 1973, media coverage exploded over the 500th suicide from the Bridge. The decade heralded an in-depth analysis of seventeen suicide barrier designs by the firm Anshen + Allen. Unfortunately, this extensive work did not rouse the Bridge District to take any remedial action.
By the mid-90s, as the suicide total approached 1,000, Bridge officials finally took action-they stopped counting. Under public pressure, the District also installed telephones with links to crisis counseling centers and instituted special training for bridge staff and emergency service personnel. A new design for the railing was examined and a prototype was installed in the Bridge parking lot.
In the past ten years, District officials have not measured the effectiveness of their actions in the '90s or even drawn up a report. We know the deaths continue because the Marin Coroner keeps count. In 2005 alone, 24 deaths were reported, plus an additional five suspected jumps where no body was recovered.
The reality is that suicide jumps from the Bridge continue at about two per month. The confirmed number of suicides now approaches 1,300. A new study is under way.
Credit: Special thanks to Jenni Olson, filmmaker and producer of The Joy of Life for much of the research on this page.