In the movie masterpiece, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” the two outlaws have been fleeing Pinkerton mercenaries who have driven them to a cliff high above a raging river.
When Butch declares that the only way out was to jump, Sundance declines, saying “I can’t swim.” This causes Butch to break down in hysterical laughter, responding: “Hell, the fall will probably kill you.”
The same is clearly true of our Golden Gate Bridge, where thousands have met their demise by leaping from the iconic span.
The surfer tribes of Fort Point at the mouth of the Golden Gate, have many stories about discovering broken bodies and their separated limbs floating beneath The Bridge at low tide. The clothes have been ripped off of most of them by the great force of impact, and that’s a sure sign that death came from on high.
But now with the recently installed “suicide nets,” authorities in San Francisco maintain that lives have been saved, and jumping discouraged. Just how many examples is open to conjecture, since no officials have been allowed to provide those statistics.
The Golden Gate Bridge Highway &Transportation District reports that The Safety Net is a hard metal platform located two stories below the sidewalk. Jumping into the Net will result in significant bruises, sprains and possibly broken bones.
While this project is unique due to its vast scale and maritime location, it is modeled on similar systems, which have been installed in various locations around the world for almost two decades. They have proven to be exceptionally effective deterrents to suicide.
A recent study of the Golden Gate Bridge showed that 90 percent of those stopped from jumping did not later die by suicide or other violent means. A Harvard School of Public Health article reviewing numerous studies showed more broadly that “Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date.”
But does the net represent another act of desecration of a glorious Bay landmark?
Leaping from a Bay Area ferry, meanwhile, is a sure bet for death by drowning. But the fall is certainly not going to end things.
Ferry operators discourage passengers from this form of departure, however, and maintain that they keep a vigilant watch on suspicious people who have only paid a one-way fare for their destination.
The U.S. Coast Guard, and regional law enforcement agencies keep mum on the subject, and you will not find any mention of it from transport providers or government regulators.
But the less dramatic damage done to watercraft jumpers is evident, too. Speculation among bayside observers is that while the GGB netting may be discouraging leapers, we may soon see an escalation of sudden unscheduled Ferry boat exits.
And there’s a rich anecdotal record of “suicide by ferry” circulating in San Francisco today.
The social history of such deaths is largely made up of artists who thrived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Musicians, painters, and writers top the list, say psychologists here who have studied the issue.
For the monologist, Spaulding Gray, our ferry may have been tempting. He was hugely popular in The Bay Area.
But his death was reckoned to be a jump from the Staten Island ferry in New York’s east river when he returned home. Twenty years ago, the body of this actor-writer was pulled out of the East River, about two months after he was last seen by witnesses.
At the time, a prominent psychologist provided a breakdown as to why people may wish to jump off a ferry.
“It’s a very public statement of their agenda,” he said. “Also, public suicide lends itself to the possibility of rescue. In general, people don’t want to die alone.”