That's a really hard fence to scale. There is nothin horizontal to get a foothold on near the top, and the fence curves backward. As I recall there is a strand of razor wire at the top.
Posted on 11/26/2004 3:54:54 PM PST by SmithL
NEW YORK -- A man jumped to his death Friday from the 86th-floor observation deck at the Empire State Building, one of Manhattan's busiest tourist destinations, police said.
The apparent suicide forced police to briefly close the landmark on Fifth Avenue to tourists in New York for the holiday weekend.
The man apparently climbed over a security fence that encloses the observation deck before leaping off. He hit a landing on the sixth floor, where he died instantly, police said.
No identification was found on his body.
At least 31 other people have committed suicide at the Empire State Building since it opened in 1931. More than 3.8 million people visit the tourist attraction each year, according to the building's Web site.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I went to the 86th floor balcony of the Empire State building once - in 1987. I very quickly turned back and went back inside. Why? Because when I am high up like that, I have an almost incontrollable urge to jump off. I also keep imagining that somebody is going to come up behind me and push me off. I can't explain it. I am not suicidal. I have no wish to die. I often have nightmares about being at the top of a tall building and walking to the very edge of it, looking down, and then jumping off. It's very weird.
I think both of your jokes fell flat.
I would say that leaping from the 86th floor of a building is the quintessential definition of an irreversible decision.
Lovers Leap
and lunch breaks
>This guy was one of the fastest readers in New York.
He could go through eighty stories in ten seconds<
Oh! oh! oh! Kudos!
That's a really hard fence to scale. There is nothin horizontal to get a foothold on near the top, and the fence curves backward. As I recall there is a strand of razor wire at the top.
Let's see, 31 suicides since 1931. 3.8 million visitors per year x 73 years (1931 to 2004) = 277 million total visitors. I wonder how many of those 277 million visitors have died from natural causes versus the 31 suicides? It's all a matter of perspective.
Sam - it's not strange, it means your normal.
FB according to Newsday it happened at 10:20AM
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/nyc-emp1127,0,285061.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
I'm guessing a NYer, as he must have know where to jump. There are only 2 places which will get you all the way down to the 6th floor.
Well, if you're going to do it, why not sudden deceleration?
It's the jokers that threaten to jump that irk me.
And a pill? You might want to ask Shelley Long about that...
Obviously, the "science" of psychology has a long way to go.
they call it dry humor.
I walked by there at exactly the same time, 4:45, and saw a ton of people all around... Thought it was just the usual tourists.
Fair point. At least this guy didn't stand up there for hours tying up traffic.
Pills don't always get the job done. Just ask Shelly Long.
Poor guy took Bill Clinton's 'Bridge to the Twenty-First Century'.
That fence is 8 feet tall, too, you have to try to climb that one.
Had to be he missed the ground !
It was.
I know what you mean. In 1988 I got to go outside on the roof of the WTC south tower. It was surreal.
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