WHERE IS THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE SUICIDE BARRIER?

In 1936, Chief Engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, Joseph Strauss, spent $130,000 on a safety net for workers building the bridge. The $130,000 spent during the depression era is not quite the fifty million dollars estimated to construct a safety net by 2011's standards. Or is it?

Since it's erection in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge has seen over 1,400 suicides to date. The Golden Gate Bridge has been dubbed the most popular place in the WORLD to commit suicide. In 2005, attention was called to the fact that too many lives were being lost and that something needed to be done. In 2006, The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District initiated the Golden Gate Bridge Physical Suicide Deterrent System Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Project, which was completed in February 2010. The final determination of the study found the safety net to be the preferred suicide detriment system. In July 2011, five million dollars in federal funds was appropriated through a grant to engineer and design a stainless steel suicide net, which will hang 20 feet below the bridge to catch suicide jumpers in mid-air. Unfortunately, the total cost of the net has been estimated at fifty million dollars. With the initial five million dollars out of the way, the deficit remaining is forty five million dollars.

Forty five million dollars still needed with no source in sight, as well as opposition to the safety barrier . The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District has been adamant about the fact that the funds will not come from toll revenues and has posted an address for contributions to be sent to. The opposition comes from those that wish the aesthetics of the bridge not be hindered. We all love the views of and from the bridge, but at what cost? Too many lives are lost annually for this issue to continue to be ignored and/or fought.

Every year, approximately thirty lives are lost to suicide from the bridge. Young, old, rich, poor, they have even traveled from other countries to commit suicide from the bridge. While we wait for the funding to appear, lives are continuing to be lost. 2006, there were 34 suicides. 35 in 2007, 34 in 2008, 31 in 2009 and 34 in 2010. 168 souls lost to suicide since the creation of the Engineering and Environmental Project study in 2006, not to mention the lives lost in 2011. According to the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, all hopes are being placed in attaining federal funding for the remaining $45 million dollar deficit.

The safety net, installed in 1937 saved the lives of nineteen men. The men proclaimed themselves the "Halfway to Hell Club", as they had cheated death due to the net. The safety net will work, we just need to funds. Quoted from the following website:

www.ggbsuicidebarrier.org :

"Funding to construct the NET SYSTEM (est. $45 million) is not identified, and current Board policy states that this funding will not come from Bridge toll revenues. Contributions towards this project may be sent to GGBHTD, P.O. Box 9000, Presidio Station, San Francisco, CA 94129, Attention: Accounting/Suicide Barrier."

Approaching 2012, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is still stating the forty five million dollars for funding has not be located and that construction of the Safety Barrier will not even begin until 2017. Another five year wait??????? And yet, they continue to jump. How many more will we lose in the next five years? It is a know fact that suicide is an impulsive act of those that think they have no where else to turn. Given time, we see we have other options and the previous circustances are not permanent. Those that have jumped due symptoms of undiagnosed mental illness would be given the time to realize there is another way and get help. They would ALL have a second chance!

A safety net WILL save lives. Too many lives have already been lost. If the net would have been in place, they would still be with us. Over 1,400 souls documented, how many more undocumented? They were pastor's, military personel, house wives, students and even children taken with parents when they jumped. How each one would have made a difference in this world. Perhaps, this need would be more "real" to the Golden Gate Transportation and Highway District if the realization of the specialness of the souls lost was called to their attention. To look at the beautiful faces of each one. Each unique in their own way. If a net would have been in place, they all would have had a second chance to think it over, to seek help, to change their minds...........................................

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  Rich,poor,young and old. Executives,students,pastors and housewives. They all have one thing in common, they all took their own lives by jumping from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. This is their story........