Call me morbid, and I totally am, but coming from San Francisco instilled the same macabre fascination with suicide in me that it did in Wittman. But here's the thing, the Golden Gate Bridge, this thing right here:
is the second most popular destination in the world for suicide. Over 1500 people have jumped off of it. It is so popular that people literally fly all the way to San Francisco just to use it as a means to an end. While millions come every year to take photos and stare and walk across the great Golden Gate, somewhere between 20 to 30 people on average every year come to the bridge just to jump off of it. I grew up just sort of expecting this to be a normal behavior. Dad went grocery shopping, there's a baseball game on, another earthquake, and ah yeah, someone jumped off the bridge again. It's common to the point of signs like these posted across the bridge:
Right now, a safety net is being built to catch people who do jump off the bridge. Which, when you look at the numbers seems like it's almost too little, too late. But it was actually argued against by some people for being too "unsightly". Because what really matters when people's lives are on the line is how pretty your damn orange bridge is, right?
Anyway, I think what I'm really curious about here is why. Why the Golden Gate? What is it about this bridge in particular that brings in so many desolate people? I also want to remind people that there are resources out there for you if you need help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and other numbers and resources are available out there. No one is alone.
Some sources on my information: The Final Leap and SF Gate
I have always wondered the same thing. Why the Golden Gate bridge? There are many other bridges in the area, and so many other means to an "end".
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, my parents liked to take us every now and then to walk across it. I remember there being officers of some kind patrolling the bridge, stopping to ask people who appeared to be alone, or looking off the edge of the bridge, how they were doing. I remember asking my mom why they were doing that, and she told me that a lot of people used to bridge to commit suicide, and that they were probably just stopping to see how people were, if they were okay, and simply reaching out.
Seeing that always made me happy, as even if a person was not intending to jump off the bridge, it was nice to see people reaching out to individuals, and trying to make a difference.
It has been a long time since I have walked across the bridge, and I don't know if people patrol the bridge anymore to check up on people, but it was nice to know that something simple was being done in order to try and prevent this from happening. There are also telephones on the bridge with signs for the suicide prevention hotline number close by.
As for the question why the golden gate? I've always sort of thought that it was symbolic of the end of the earth, as far west as you could go, which might seem morbidly fitting for someone who is trying to end their life.
I read somewhere, that all the people who have survived jumping off the bridge, realized after they jumped that all the problems they were trying to escape were fixable. I love that they put that net there, to give people a second chance, but the net doesn't run the entire length of the bridge. I appreciate that they put the hotline numbers on the bridge as well.
ReplyDeleteErin-
ReplyDeleteIf we want to answer the question of "Why the Golden Gate?", one might consider the axial question of concern to be "Why jump?" Wittman's comments in Tripmaster Monkey are of particular interest here:
"They take the side of the bridge that faces land. And the city. The last city.
Feet first. Coit Tower giving you the finger all the way down. Wittman would
face the sea. And the setting sun. Dive."
Wittman, of course, does not dive, and he immediately rejects the idea. But he seems sure that those who have jumped have made it a point to face the city itself. Suicide is obviously an intensely personal decision, and clearly much more psychologically complicated than we can attend to here, but Wittman's description and his psychoanalysis of the jumpers raises some interesting questions. If those who jump ubiquitously choose the city side of the bridge to jump, what do they hope to see? Or is the decision to face the city a kind of message, like an artistic choice?
Again, I am obviously no psychologist, so I will defer to close reading. In the last seconds of Wittman's theoretical jumpers' view, we see "the last city". San Francisco was indeed the last continental city, and deeply symbolic of the westward expansion of the American empire, but the city itself was never intended as the "last city," per se. As we know, American imperialism sets its sights further west into the Pacific. Maybe Wittman/Kingston/the jumper is commenting in some way on this as being the last sight of capitalist expansion, with the Golden Gate being a kind of terminus to the power of the American idea.
The jumper also poignantly sees Coit Tower giving its enormous phallic "fuck you." This is possibly symbolic for the cannabilistic indifference of the city, treading mercilessly on those less fortunate to the very end. Maybe the jumper needs to see this to verify his/her/their belief that they simply cannot fit in within the capitalist machine. Or maybe facing the city is like one last fruitless call for help, echoing across the bay and rebounding within the enormous stone canals of downtown.
Why one would travel from afar to commit suicide from this bridge is possibly only a question that the dead can answer, but the living can speculate. It sure grabs the attention more than a quiet eternal slumber in a nauxious carpark. And, of course, who can beat the view?
As morbid as it is, I think the question of "why the Golden Gate bridge?" in relation to suicide is simply because it's famous. Sure, there are other bridges (hell, the Bay Bridge is even in the same city) but due to the notoriety that the Golden Gate Bridge has as a symbol of the city as well as a national landmark, it somehow draws more attention to someone jumping off of it. The fact that it's become a type of phenomenon that requires a net being installed underneath the bridge to prevent if from further happening (and in response to "too little too late", I would say better late than never) means that there is something about jumping off of the Golden Gate bridge that maybe the people jumping think will bring even more attention to themselves. It's unfortunate that so many people have ended their lives this way and that the bridge has now gained this macabre association with it, but I think the phrase "going out with style" might provide some insight as to why a person might choose to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.
ReplyDeleteThis made me curious if there is actual science behind jumping off of the Golden Gate Bridge vs. any other form of suicide. I never thought that a net around the bridge would help. As Lauren pointed out, it does give people who tried to jump a second chance. But there are other ways to kill yourself. The ideal is that their lives are saved and they realize that maybe they should keep living; the realistic is that some people would simply find another way to commit suicide. If you jump off the Golden Gate, there us a chance you can survive "if you hit the water feet first and come in at a slight angle." Sometimes you'll pass out before you ever hit the water because of the sudden inertia on your internal organs. Sometimes you die from the impact of hitting the water. Other times you'll live for a small amount of time, flailing around in the water. Some people claim that suicide by bridge is impulsive, which is why the netting would help. The bridge with the highest number of suicides is the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, the Golden Gate a close second. I can't seem to figure out a reason why this bridge other than it is high, people know where it is, and you'll have a good view on the way down. Or maybe people read sad things from the writers of SF and think that's where sad people go, they want to not feel alone.
ReplyDeleteI would like to partially agree with Nicholas' point that the answer to "why the Golden Gate Bridge" but i think it goes beyond "because it's famous" and into "because it is a recognized symbol of the West" and surely in one way or another, the West has failed those who jump off the bridge. The bridge is also high and the image of throwing yourself off the Golden Gate has become romanticized (as pointed out by many others). It is interesting to think about Holly's point that some people claim "that suicide from the bridge is impulsive." If this is true, it might mean that the symbolic associations of the Bridge in relation to the Western world are so entrenched in the Western psyche that those who are dissatisfied with the West are so overcome with associated psychological distress on witnessing this symbol that they must throw themselves off it. This isn't a concrete claim -- I am merely pondering such interesting and radical claims that I find difficult to come to terms with.
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