Film captures suicides on Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 01/19/2005 | Philip Matier and Andrew Ross

[TenaciousZ]

Golden Gate Bridge officials are seething that a moviemaker who told them he was working on a "day in the life" project about the landmark was, in fact, capturing people on film as they jumped to their deaths.

Eric Steel initially told officials he planned to spend a year filming the "powerful and spectacular interaction between the monument and nature" and that his work was to be the first in a series of documentaries about national monuments such as the St. Louis Arch and the Statue of Liberty. That's how he got the Golden Gate National Recreation Area's permission to set up cameras on parkland overlooking Fort Point.

Now, however, Steel has revealed in an e-mail to bridge officials that the cameras -- which were operating almost continuously during daylight hours for all of 2004 -- filmed most of the 19 jumpers who went off the bridge last year plus a number of attempted suicides.

Apparently, that was the point all along. Steel says his goal is to "allow us to see into the most impenetrable corners of the human mind and challenge us to think and talk about suicide in profoundly different ways."

"Are we angry? Absolutely," said bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie.

[TenaciousZ]

There is no suicide barrier. They've rebuilt the guardrail between the walkway and adjacent traffic lanes, but proposals for a suicide barrier come and go and are ultimately rejected, likely on aesthetic grounds. The bridge is an icon. There's a pretty interesting article about the matter from the New Yorker here.

[.38sw]

I agree. This is sick. My sis-in-law's fiance jumped from the GG bridge a few years ago. He was bipolar, had stopped taking his meds, and decided to end his life.

[MarineBrat]

My brother used to be CO of the USCG boats that had to go retrieve the "floaters." Nothing to see.... move along!

[Pinetop]

Isn't the other side of the bridge the bicycle lane? No matter what your plan, you don't want to get in the way of the latex crowd. Also, the northwest side of the bridge looms over some pretty nasty rocks just under the surface.

Why is the GGB paying to have a movie made and wasn't there any oversight of this project. Sounds like goofy Stanley Gatti stuff...

[HamiltonJay]

It is incomprehensible to me that anyone would desire so much to capitalize on the pain of others. Reckoning will come for this troll, and when it does, may God have mercy upon him.

[CheneyChick]

It's Bush's fault!

Nah. This one is Boxer's fault. They realized how pathetic their representation was for the state of CA.

[Zacs Mom]

Another michael moore in the making ~ this free press about his 'controversial' new film is just what he was hoping for

[paul51]

filmed most of the 19 jumpers who went off the bridge last year plus a number of attempted suicides

Outlaw that bridge and don't let anyone use it except police officers and elected officials

[sr4402]

'The film maker is just expressing his opinions, just like I do. If it increases suicides, so what? I say to the suiciders "Let them go naked".'

/sarcasm off

[50sDad]

Here in Cincinnati ("my home town") we had an a-hole who made a deal with the city coroner to, get this, do an "art" project by filming corpses in "various poses." Corpse with a cigarette, corpse with playing cards, that kind of idiocy. "Mr. Art Major", moron in question, had a showing of these pictures, and was arrested for misuse of a corpse. Well, good. Didn't end there, or should have ended with the moron coroner fired. Artsy-blartsy idiot has been convicted and done hard time, but his lawyers have done everything you could think of to delay, delay, delay. (I think he's out on appeal.) The families are suing not just the pinhead and the coroner...of course, they are suing the city, because the pinhead and the coroner don't have enough money. In the end, since the coroner was completely at fault for giving the fool permission, the city will pay out a bazillion dollars to families who were embarrassed but not really hurt, and my taxes go up again.

Back in DaVinci's day, if you were an artist, you were good, or you weren't. If you were good, you sucked up to somebody who had money and made art that somebody wanted to pay for. If you were talentless, or made "art" that people found offensive, you were run out of town and you slopped pigs for a living.

Lesson learned? Anytime some goofball wants anything in the name of "art", they should be escorted out the door with a kick in the pants. Not a dime of danegeld. Get out!

[Question_Assumptions]

The liberals not wanting to spoil the beauty of the bridge reminds me of the liberals not wanting to spoil their view of the horizon with windmills in MA.

[rellimpank]

--interesting article which does make the good point that going off the bridge makes it unlikely that anybody below will be hit.

When I lived there the local garbage wraps (the Chronical, Examiner and Bay Guardian-I didn't read the Advocate)were continuously using the subject of the barrier to fill pages of print with sanctimonious hypocrisy pro and con---

[The KG9 Kid]

Driving to Marin County from SF, the city is on the right side.

[Idisarthur]

Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God)

One of the best tags I've read.

[Plutarch]

I wonder if he had a system in place to ask jumpers to wait for fog to clear, or to please jump on the Bay, not the Pacific side (I recall that most jumpers choose the same side, I think the Bay side).

[TRY ONE]

Humpty Dumpty was pushed, you know!

[fella]

Hmmmmmm? A media/artist type lies to and then fools officials and then stabs them in the back. But we all know that media/artists are always up front and truthful just look at CBS news or ask any of our troops in Iraq who ate with, slept by and protected in-bedded reporters.

[IonImplantGuru]

When driving from San Fran, is it easier to jump from the pacific side or the san fran side? Do you have to cross the road in order to jump on the san fran side? What were the places of residence for those who did jump on the san fran side?

Driving out of the city outbound lanes are on the east, or SF Bay side, of the bridge (i.e., facing San Francisco); inbound from Marin County, the lanes are on the west side, facing the Pacific Ocean.

Pedestrians have free access to the bridge from parking lots at either end of the bridge which are located on the east, or outbound, side of the bridge - one near and above Ft Point on the SF end, the other on the Marin Headlands near Sausalito.

Near the entrance to the bridge walkways at either end are pedestrian 'underpasses' (steel with chain-link barriers) suspended under the bridge deck to allow access to the the west, or ocean-facing, side walkway for those that want a 'different view'. Pretty trippy, as you get a good view of the steelwork under the deck - the top, or road surface, is paved.

The last time I took the walk - a few years ago - there were no barriers, other than the original chest-high railings, between the walkway and the water. Interestingly, there are no barriers between the roadway and the walkway either! The walkway is elevated 12" or 18" above the road surface but anyone out with small kids better keep them in hand, what with heavy traffic going 45 or 50 mph right next to you.

Jumpers are from all over, though my gut feel is that the biggest percentage are denizens of San Francisco. Most drive out, park in one of the lots, walk out, and do their thing. A few, wanting maximum impact, just stop their cars in the middle of the bridge, get out and go for eternity from there.

A very few jumpers have survived the attempt when there happened to be a boat nearby to get them out of the water before they drowned; of these, a number were 'successful' at second attempts.

A number of attempts to get the bridge board to install barriers have been tried, but the bridge authority is not beholden to any local political entity - it's a fiefdom unto itself. The stock response is either "it'll cost too much, and any barrier can be circumvented by someone who REALLY wants to jump" or "it would ruin the aesthetics of one of the most marvelous designs in human history".

[Steelerfan]

He put his hazards on??? I would guess he was not worried about being hit, so he must have been pretty courteous by nature.