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.

[Citizen James]

[Dashing Dasher]

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."

Let's given him an NEA grant for such wonderful work.

//sarcasm

[SmithL]

They've also talked about putting barriers between the different traffic directions, but that won't happen either. What I'd really like to see is a barrier to keep the Woody Harrelsons off the towers.

[albee]

"...I saw a guy jump off the Bay Bridge at the top of the incline section. Two cars ahead me. Guy put his hazards on, stopped his car, got out, and hopped over the railing.

I saw the same thing on the Golden Gate Bridge at 2:30 A.M. while driving home to Marin County from a party in S.F. many years ago.

The guy stopped his car, walked over to the guard rail, hesitated for a few seconds then climbed over the rail and jumped.

It really shook me up. I didn't sleep at all that night and to this day wonder why he did it.