Still, the issue is rarely examined. In the Bay Area, the topic is virtually taboo. In , an engineer named Roger Grimes began agitating for a barrier on the Golden Gate. Support a Suicide Barrier. When Paul Alarab was pulled from the Bay at a. The impact had ripped off his left glove and his right shoe. The Coast Guard crew, wearing their standard jumper-retrieval garb to protect against leaking body fluids—Tyvex biohazard suits, masks, gloves, and safety goggles—began C. Half an hour later, Alarab was pronounced dead.
Soon afterward, the cell phone rang. When she did, he told her that her ex-husband had jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Then he told her that the corpse wore a yarn necklace. And she recalled, suddenly, that their daughter had made such a necklace for Paul. Jumpers tend to idealize what will happen after they step off the bridge. Lanny Berman, the executive director of the American Association of Suicidology, says. In the four-second fall from the bridge, survivors say, time does seem to slow. Jumpers who hit the water do so at about seventy-five miles an hour and with a force of fifteen thousand pounds per square inch.
Eighty-five per cent of them suffer broken ribs, which rip inward and tear through the spleen, the lungs, and the heart.
Vertebrae snap, and the liver often ruptures. Those who survive the impact usually die soon afterward. If they go straight in, they plunge so deeply into the water—which reaches a depth of three hundred and fifty feet—that they drown. The rare survivors always hit feet first, and at a slight angle. Already this year, two bodies have vanished entirely. On December 17, , fourteen-year-old Marissa Imrie, a petite and attractive straight-A student who had planned to become a psychiatrist, left her second-period class at Santa Rosa High School, took a hundredand-fifty-dollar taxi ride to the Golden Gate, and jumped to her death.
Everyone is better off without this fat, disgusting, boring girl. Move on. Imrie used the property with due care for the purposes it was designed. As Joseph Strauss, the chief engineer of the Golden Gate, watched his beloved suspension bridge rise over San Francisco Bay in the nineteen-thirties, he could not imagine that anyone would use it without due care for its designated purpose. His body was never found. The original design called for the rail to be five and a half feet high, but this was lowered to four feet in the final blueprint, for reasons that are lost to history.
In May, , Strauss died of a heart attack, likely brought on by the stress of seeing the bridge to completion. And at the dedication ceremony A. The Golden Gate Bridge, for my dead friend, turned out to be a mute monument of misery. The coverage intensified in , when the Chronicle and the Examiner initiated countdowns to the five-hundredth recorded jumper. In , as No. A local disk jockey went so far as to promise a case of Snapple to the family of the victim.
That June, trying to stop the countdown fever, the California Highway Patrol halted its official count at In early July, Eric Atkinson, age twenty-five, became the unofficial thousandth; he was seen jumping, but his body was never found. The Bay Area media now usually report bridge jumps only if they involve a celebrity or tie up traffic. So were Mt. In addition, the railing along the sidewalk will be replaced with thinner pickets to allow more area for wind to pass through, Bauer Furbush said.
New railings are also being installed to allow the travelers to move along the side of the bridge. The new units will be all-electric compared to the current combustion engine-powered travelers. As for the barrier, the metal support beams will be installed first and painted the iconic international orange. The metal net and border cables will then be installed, with the net remaining gray so as to blend in with the ocean waters below.
The district has created a mockup net at its corporate yard in Richmond to allow workers to train in the installation process as the steel supports could be damaged if done incorrectly. Late last month, Gamboa was among a group of family members whose loved ones had also made the fatal jump from the bridge that traveled to Richmond on Jan. It was an emotional moment for many of them to see the frame of metallic parts. As a former engineer for Sacramento County, Gamboa said she has been very impressed with the meticulous approach to this long-awaited project.
Although I had never met Gene Sprague, I feel sorrow even today for having witnessed his passing. The east sidewalk is the setting for almost every jump. The sidewalk is a ten feet wide concrete walkway that runs the length of the bridge, taking gradual turns around each tower. About every hundred yards, metal latched emergency gates have been installed for bridge patrol and tow service to access the sidewalk from the roadway. Rumor has it the low rail height can be attributed to bridge designer Joseph Strauss being only five feet tall.
Beyond the outer rail, three feet below the outside edge of the sidewalk, is a three feet wide steel box chord, which is the only thing between the outer rail and a feet fall to the waters below. Due to constant fog and moisture in the air, the top of the chord is wet nearly all the time and can be extremely slick. Very dangerous conditions for those of us who walk on steel every day, let alone a nervous person climbing down onto it for the first time. A victim caught on surveillance video learned a tragic lesson about the dangers of going over the outer rail.
It is late evening, and a middle-aged man stands alone on the sidewalk near a light pole, not another soul in sight. Fog blanketed the bridge on this dark drizzly night. The heavy mist gave the sidewalk lighting an eerie faded glow, just enough light to help guide him over the guardrail. Awkwardly he climbs over the rail and now stands on the chord ready to jump.
Suddenly, he appears to be having second thoughts about his decision. He does not want to jump. He is scared and disoriented, but not ready to end his life. He gets up his nerve to climb back over the rail to safety. He reaches for the handrail but comes up considerably short. Due to the drop from the sidewalk to the chord, the top handrail is now over seven feet above him. The chord glistens with moisture, and must be very slick. The man can only reach the bottom of the guardrail, which he now tightly holds on to, searching for a foothold that will allow him to hoist himself back over the rail.
His foot slips from the beam, and his grip fails him. Falling back down to the wet chord, he slips off the chord, out of sight from the video camera and ultimately gone forever, falling to his death. He learned the hard way how slick and dangerous the outer chord can be, and will never get his second chance at life.
Accounts given from jump survivors all point towards sincere regret setting in immediately after they jump. It can be assumed that most of the hundreds of jumpers who were not lucky enough to survive, had similar regrets. Suicide can be attempted many different ways. Most methods to take your own life are fallible. In four seconds, it is all over. During the four seconds fall, the body will travel the feet at mph, ending with a bone shattering impact of 15, pounds per square inch.
This type of fall will destroy a body and most times cause an instant death. For those that actually survive the fall, their unconscious body will most likely drown from asphyxiation, or breathing in too much salt water in the swift moving feet deep channel. Those who remain conscious may succumb to extensive internal bleeding while trying to stay afloat. They may also die of shock, and if not rescued quickly can die of hypothermia in the frigid waters.
On September 4 th , , nineteen year old Kevin Hines took a foot headfirst dive off the bridge. During the jump, Hines decided he wanted to live, so he rotated his body to hit the water feet first. He hit the water in a sitting position, taking impact in his legs and through his back.
He had suffered serious spinal damage as three of his vertebrae were shattered lacerating his lower organs, but he was alive. In that instant, I thought, what have I just done? God please save me. He is a mental health advocate in the prevention of bridge suicides and wrote a book about his suicide attempt called Cracked, Not Broken.
I remember another jumper and his amazing feat of survival. On March 10, , a report came over our bridge radio that a man held onto the outer chord after climbing over the rail at the south end of the bridge between the South Tower and the South Anchor Block.
Later we found out the jumper to be Luke Vilagomez, a seventeen year old from Windsor, California on a field trip with his high school class.
I leaned over the rail and saw the teen dangling over an area where local surfing enthusiasts sometimes spend their lunch hour catching a few waves. Vilagomez eventually let go, falling into the water, landing near a group of these surfers. One of the surfers, fifty-five year old Frederic Lecoutier, who had an extensive background, helped the injured teen to shore. Lecoutier resuscitated Vilagomez, thus saving his life.
Vilagomez broke his coccyx and punctured a lung, but survived. Next, is the unusual case of Paul Aladdin Alarab from Kensington, in the East Bay, who miraculously survived a fall from the bridge in As an act of protest to what he believed to be the mistreatment of the elderly and handicapped, Alarab lowered himself into a garbage can that hung from a 60 feet rope off the bridge.
He lost his grip on the rope and fell. He had three broken ribs and both lungs collapsed but he survived. I was praying for God to give me another chance, I was also wondering about how I would hit, because that is what determines if you will live or die.
Fifteen years later, Alarab again found himself in a compromising situation at the Bridge. On March 19, , the forty-four year old Alarab, protesting the U. Alarab read a statement he had written denouncing the war while law enforcement tried to talk him back over the railing.
After finishing the statement, he let go of the rope and fell to the waters below. This time he did not survive. Investigators ruled it a suicide this time. I guess beating the odds of surviving a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, obviously was not enough for Alarab.
Various methods have been tried to reduce the number of suicides. Suicide hotline telephones are installed throughout the bridge, and staff regularly patrol the bridge in carts or on bicycles, looking for people who appear to be planning to jump. In addition to Golden Gate Bridge patrol, law enforcement and emergency medical personnel, bridge management take pride in training employees from other departments in suicide prevention.
Golden Gate Bridge ironworkers and painters volunteer their time to prevent suicides, and receive training on the various signs to look for concerning someone in crisis, such as ways to engage people walking alone on the bridge, or safety protocol when approaching a suspicious person who requires police intervention.
These tactics have helped convince many people not to take their own lives. California Highway Patrol patrolman Kevin Briggs is credited with saving hundreds of lives of would-be-jumpers by talking them out of jumping. A woman had climbed over the guardrail and stood upon the outer chord below. Scared and trembling, she clung tightly to the bridge support cables that ran up through the chord, threatening to let go if anyone tried to grab her. Alfredo, a bridge painter working nearby, calmly approached the frightened young lady.
He sat next to the troubled woman for over and hour, and through dialogue full of heartfelt concern and patience, Alfredo eventually talked this desperate person out of jumping and then helped her back over the rail to safety. The crowd that had gathered around the incident, including myself, began cheering as Alfredo helped the woman into the bridge patrol scooter that would take her off the bridge…alive.
For this woman, the odds of remaining alive are good. There is now one more person in this world with a second chance at a happy life thanks to Alfredo. The U. Coast Guard is on constant alert for jumpers, and when a person is seen jumping from the sidewalk, U.
Coast Guard will be first responder to the scene. The station has two 47 feet long motor lifeboats. When someone jumps from the Golden Gate Bridge, one of these two boats can get to the scene in four to five minutes with sailors who retrieve the jumper and perform lifesaving measures. Spotting a body can be difficult to see at eye level from a Coast Guard rescue vessel. As soon as a jump is confirmed, bridge patrol will drive to where the jump occurred, exit onto the sidewalk through the access gate, and immediately drop a smoke flare which is basically a smoking kettle the size of a basketball straight down into the water, from the spot the jump was made.
The smoking flare will drift the same route as the body whether the tide is ebbing or flowing inward. This way, the Coast Guard can follow the rising smoke to locate the body quickly. This will give the Coast Guard a better chance at a rescue. Coast Guard is ready to respond quickly to revive a drowning victim, administer CPR to an injured survivor, get a potential survivor out of the water before hypothermia can set in, unfortunately most cases end with the grim task of locating and removing a lifeless body from the water.
Not all bridge employees had compassion for suicide jumpers. Some of these people rationalized that if a person wants to jump, let them. Others were not interested either way. The Golden Gate Bridge, like work places all across America, had many types of gambling by its employees. Poker games, dominoes, football pools, parley cards, basically, any type of gambling that could exist, did.
Management frowned on gambling in the workplace, but good luck trying to eliminate it. The format was a monthly calendar, with blank squares for each day of the month. The participant paid for a square, then chose any day on this calendar, and signed his name, initials, or alias. Simple objective, a suicide occurring on the day he chose, and he wins all the money built up since the day of the last jump.
If there are no jumps during that month, the pot rolls over to the next month. I saw this pool as just a bad joke, or a novelty that would soon go away. A small percentage of employees participated in the pool and most others thought it to be irresponsible, and in bad taste. The players were not necessarily evil people, they were just among those who had no compassion for jumpers, or those with a serious gambling addiction.
Not much mystery to the identity of those in the pool. They were usually the ones running in to bridge security first thing in the morning to ask if there were any jumpers the day before.
I could not avoid the thought that every time a person jumped, a fellow worker just made some money.
It was hard imagining someone actually hoping a person jumps off the bridge on a particular day, just to make a few dollars, but I guess we are all different people. This pool discreetly flourished for a few months, but good judgment eventually won out, and interest wavered.
Horrified, they immediately laid down a zero-tolerance rule. Anyone involved in these games would be unconditionally terminated.
Management also punished the rest of us by banning all types of gambling and wagering. Collateral damage can be a motivational force, and the rest of the department rose up against the abhorrent pool and put a swift end to it.
Harold B. Wobber, a forty-seven year old World War I veteran, walked the pedestrian sidewalk in August of , just a few months after the Bridge was opened.
Wobber officially became the first person to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. Many park in the lots at either end of the bridge and walk to the spot they choose to jump. There are also impulse suicides, involving those who just stop their car, run to the rail and go up and over. Still, others go down onto the outer chord below the guardrail, and just stand there contemplating the reasons that brought them to this point, taking in the last few breaths they will ever take.
Many jumpers have left suicide notes. Apologies, health issues, and of course, references to sour relationships head the list of fateful subjects. Sometimes notes can be heart wrenching like this tragic note left by a young premed student from UCLA in , who followed his father off the Bridge just four days after his father had committed suicide. Kyle Gamboa, a high school student from Fair Oaks near Sacramento, skipped school one day in September , to jump off the Bridge.
I thought this was a good place to end. Disturbing tales and accounts have circulated around the Bridge for decades about those who desire more than just an end to their lives, they want to make a statement as well.
Once in awhile a selfish man, not wanting to leave anything behind, will jump with his life savings in his pocket. There are those who committed criminal acts, taking computers or other incriminating evidence over the side with them.
In one case, a seventy years old man jumped after murdering his wife. Some sort of a pact, over the rail hand in hand, four last seconds together. Jumpers have taken their pets with them.
Most of the times they hold onto their pets when they jump, but I remember one sad instance where I watched a man toss a helpless dog over, before jumping himself. Pets are not the only ones who go over the rail unexpectedly. Terrible incidents have taken place where jumpers, in their moment of instantaneous desperation, take innocent people over the rail with them.
A man got into an argument with his girlfriend near the South Tower. He became so upset that he forcefully shoved the woman up and over the guardrail, and then followed her over the side. Both died, but the girlfriend unfortunately did not get to choose where she landed, and missed the water, hitting the concrete fender surrounding the pier.
On January 28, , Steven Page killed his wife Nancy in their Fremont house with a gauge shotgun. Page the drove his three years old daughter Kellie to the Golden Gate Bridge. Highway patrolmen approached Page who looked suspicious carrying his child on the bridge sidewalk, causing Page to immediately throw his daughter over the rail and then he jumped himself.
A note Page had earlier left, telling how sorry he was about the murders he would commit, left no doubt the terrible incident was premeditated. Until the shocking Kellie Page murder in , the youngest death was five years old Marilyn Demont in With the child standing on the chord just outside the bridge railing, her father, August Demont, a thirty-seven years old elevator installer, commanded her to jump.
After Marilyn jumped, her father followed her over. Fellow painters told me of an incident they witnessed a couple years before I came to the work at the bridge. A man stood next to a random young girl he did not know.
He suddenly grabbed the girl, intending to jump off the bridge with her in his arms. Luckily, several people in the vicinity wrestled the girl from his grip, saving her from a horrific fate.
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