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Our mission is to prevent suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge and advocate for restricting access to all means of suicide.
March 2020 Newsletter
2020 Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Statistics
Confirmed suicides through February: 2
Unconfirmed suicides through February: 1
Interventions through February: 33
Suicides & interventions through February: 36

Source: Golden Gate Bridge District
2019 Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Statistics
Confirmed suicides during the year: 28
Unconfirmed suicides during the year: 2
Interventions during the year: 167
Suicides & interventions during the year: 197

Source: Golden Gate Bridge District
Bridge Suicides, 2000-2019
 
In the past 20 years, from 2000 through 2019, there were 592 confirmed suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge and 73 unconfirmed suicides, according to the Bridge District. The highest number was in 2013 with 46 confirmed and 2 unconfirmed, while the lowest number was in 2001 with 17 confirmed and 3 unconfirmed. The average was 33 confirmed and unconfirmed suicides per year. The total number of successful interventions (i.e. thwarted jumps) by Bridge Patrol and California Highway Patrol officers over this period was 2,078, or an average of 104 per year. Since the bridge opened in 1937, there have been roughly 2,000 suicides, making the bridge the top suicide site in the world.
Natchez Trace Bridge Barrier

In 2015 the Federal Highway Administration, National Park Service, and the Natchez Trace Bridge Barrier Coalition (see below) began planning a suicide barrier on Tennessee's Natchez Trace Bridge. Those plans are coming to fruition with the recent hiring of a company to work on the design and a construction estimate of the barrier. As of the end of 2019, 36 people had jumped to their deaths from the bridge since it opened 25 years ago. In 2019, an additional 10 people were stopped from jumping. The goal is for the design and construction estimate to be completed by spring 2021. The earliest date that construction will start is the fall of that year.
Tennessee Group Honored

In recognition of their work to end suicides from the Natchez Trace Bridge, The Tennessean newspaper named the advocates, survivors, lawmakers, and law enforcement officials who are working to make the bridge safe as the 2019 People of the Year. Honorees include two women who founded the Natchez Trace Bridge Barrier Coalition after losing family members to the bridge, sheriff's deputies who talk people down from the bridge, University of Tennessee-Knoxville students who proposed three different barrier options, and a woman who survived the 155-foot drop. That woman, who was a struggling college student when she jumped three years ago, now works at a nonprofit organization that helps people with intellectual disabilities.
Meanwhile, in Scotland...

Forth Road Bridge is just outside the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, it's a single suspension span and a suicide magnet, averaging 20 suicides per year. The Scottish government isn't looking to follow the example set by San Francisco to install a physical suicide deterrent system, however. Instead, new signs and surveillance cameras have been introduced as preventative measures. This is a predictable first step, mainly because it's far chapter than a physical barrier such as a tall railing or a net. Unfortunately, on other bridges where this has been tried, it has failed to have much impact. Suicidal people ignore the signs and cameras and jump anyway. 
Bridge Rail Foundation is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization. Safe, secure, tax-deductible donations can be made by clicking on this link. Community support makes our work possible.
Copyright © 2020 Bridge Rail Foundation. All rights reserved.
3020 Bridgeway #179, Sausalito, CA 94965. www.bridgerail.net.

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Bridge Rail Foundation · 3020 Bridgeway #179 · Sausalito, CA 94565 · USA

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