List of golden gate bridge jumpers

Between andan estimated 1, bodies were recovered of people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridgelocated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. Inpotential jumpers were talked down from their attempts and did not jump. A number of measures are in place to discourage people from jumping, list of golden gate bridge jumpers, including telephone hotlines and patrols by emergency personnel and bridge workers.

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.

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. 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. Survivors often regret their decision in midair, if not before. Ken Baldwin and Kevin Hines both say they hurdled over the railing, afraid that if they stood on the chord they might lose their courage. Baldwin was twenty-eight and severely depressed on the August day in when he told his wife not to expect him home till late. He counted to ten again, then vaulted over. Kevin Hines was eighteen when he took a municipal bus to the bridge one day in September,

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More than 40, people die by suicide in the United States every year. By comparison, about 18, people in this country are murdered annually. The majority of Americans who die by suicide—more than 60 percent—use a firearm. Other means such as pills, hanging, and jumps are less common, but by no means rare. Bridge jumpers in general are younger than people who kill themselves by other means, and this is true for the Golden Gate Bridge as well. The average age of Golden Gate Bridge jumpers is under 40, and more than 10 percent are in their teens.

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.

List of golden gate bridge jumpers

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. Most of the jumpers die due to impact trauma. An official suicide count was kept until the year , [9] sorted according to which of the bridge's lamp posts the jumper was nearest when they jumped.

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San Francisco Chronicle. The officers on the walkway craned their necks in a horrified line, watching him fall. Families of victims have long argued that officials have not hastened to make lifesaving modifications to the bridge, a structure that has led to approximately double the number of deaths as the Jonestown massacre. Go beyond the headlines. Archived from the original on February 26, Although this belief makes intuitive sense, it is demonstrably untrue. Newsletter Subscribe to our monthly newsletter with articles and updates on efforts to stop suicide from bridges and other public facilities. On June 5, , at p. The Los Angeles Times. The non-physical barrier catches between fifty and eighty people each year, and misses about thirty. It was a.

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.

Tad Friend has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since The paper conducted an investigation after a bail agent, Fabian Hector Herrera, fatally shot David Spann during the confrontation and has since been charged with his murder. But some residents have learned of another hazard: a chemical that disinfects medical items like wound dressings and stents. NY Daily News. The impact cracked several of his vertebrae. There were reports of Christensen having become friendly with a man described as "willowy Most die on impact, but 5 percent survive the fall and end up drowning. That June, trying to stop the countdown fever, the California Highway Patrol halted its official count at Modern Luxury. Jumpers tend to idealize what will happen after they step off the bridge. This is the Essential California newsletter. I don't want to die. Most survivors of a jump have been young—in their teens or early twenties. According to Denis Mulligan, general manager of the district "The net is designed not for a cushy landing but rather to inflict a painful, though nonlethal, injury on a jumper.