Golden Gate Bridge Research Paper

The dominant narrative views the bridge as a legendary destination, however, to the locals, it symbolizes much more than just a view, it represents grief.

The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937, and is the “9th longest suspension bridge in the world,” connecting the counties of San Francisco and Marin (Golden Gate Bridge Research Projects). You can view the San Francisco Bay from the East side of the bridge and the Pacific Ocean, all the way to the Farallone Islands, off the West side. The Golden Gate is painted “International Orange” and at “midspan the height (from the roadway to the water) is…270 feet” (Golden Gate Bridge Research Projects). The Golden Gate Bridge has over “10 million” visitors annually, who are eager to walk the bridge and be dazzled by its picturesque views (Golden Gate Bridge

Research Projects). Nonetheless, it has also been the final stop for over “1,600” people who have jumped from the “25 story” structure and traveled at “75 miles per hour” to their deaths (Bridge Rail Foundation, Mosbergen). It barely takes “four seconds” (Mosbergen).
Only “1%” of people have ever survived the jump” (Hines).

One such individual is Kevin Hines, who “felt an instant regret…the millisecond (his) hands left the rail” (Hines). Since then, Hines, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, has become a “mental health advocate and suicide prevention activist” (Mosbergen). He has also produced a film, “Suicide: The Ripple Effect,” in which he describes the feelings of hopelessness for those contemplating suicide, as well as the horrifying effects that suicide has on those left behind (Hines). Furthermore, Hines and other mental health advocates, hope that by installing a bridge safety net, along with expanded access to mental health, the number of suicides will decrease (Hines). Proponents of the safety net point to barriers erected at the “Empire State Building…Sydney Harbor Bridge (and other) suicide magnets” which have decreased “the number of jumpers…to a handful or to zero” (Friend). Nevertheless, detractors argue an individual contemplating a jump over Golden Gate’s 4-foot guardrail will simply find another manner to commit suicide (The Bridge Rail Foundation). However, research has concluded

otherwise;
“most suicidal people fixate on one means of death. If that means isn't available to them, they don't choose another means. Instead, they choose to live. Of the small number of people who have survived jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge, nearly all have said afterward that it was the Golden Gate Bridge or nothing. They didn't have a Plan B” (Bateson).

This exemplifies how “many suicides were (actually) committed impulsively,” and accordingly, intervention could have a profound difference (Mosbergen). Additional research by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has documented that of “153 people (who attempted suicide) …a quarter of (those) acted within five minutes of the impulse to do so” (Blaustein). This fact has also been supported by the “University of California, Berkeley that found that only 6 percent of the 515 people who were stopped from leaping (from the Golden Gate) went on to kill themselves” (Mosbergen). Ironically, according to the “Director of Psychiatry at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco…if you can curb that initial impulsive attempt…patients often realize, even without treatment, that they don’t want to die. Many leave the hospital within 24 hours” (Blaustein). This sentiment is also reiterated in “Dr. Seiden’s study, “Where Are They Now?” “(which) confirmed…that suicidal behavior is crisis-oriented” (Friend). “If you can get a suicidal person through his crisis (approximately 90 days)-the chances are extremely good that he won’t kill himself later” (Friend).
One of my closest friends, Sara Brown, also lost a former classmate from her middle school. Sara went to a small middle school right outside of San Francisco. She said “We were not best friends, however, we still had classes together and spent time together in and outside of school” (Brown). Sara went on to inform me that her friend came from a wealthy family from