opened on this date in 1937. Vehicular traffic began the next day. Jumping off began three months later.
Read about the world’s leading location for suicide from an article last October in The New Yorker.
On the bridge, Baldwin counted to ten and stayed frozen. He counted to ten again, then vaulted over. “I still see my hands coming off the railing,” he said. As he crossed the chord in flight, Baldwin recalls, “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.”
Ken Baldwin, one of 26 known survivors
Really interesting article. Thanks for posting it. In this day and age, I don’t understand why they can’t design an unobtrusive barrier.
Jill, Others share your view about a barrier(http://members.tripod.com/cfasggb/Suicide/Index2.htm). But having lived a long time in the Bay Area, I can tell you that’s a controversial issue for all sorts of aesthetic reasons. Crazy, I know.