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 wonder floor he was at when he hit terminal velocity?
I have the same syndrome. Its not an urge to jump off but its a FEAR that an urge will come over you. I wonder if this is more common than I thought...
what if you change your mind on the way down?
Glad to hear it. I have the same feelings.
When I went to college for a semester in England, everyday I took the train into London, you know, the kind w/the individual carriage that you enter from the platform? I also had an urge to open the door and jump out of the carriage when riding the train. It got so I wouldn't even look out of the window. It was kind of embarassing, but once I mentioned it and it turned out that another American student said she had the same problem. You really do feel like an idiot.
My sympathies are with the diners who will never forget this incident. Pluperfect definition of "innocent bystanders".
Suicide is selfish Period.
And the last thing to pass thru his mind...
(wait for it...)
His Clymer!
Ba-Doom-Boom! Thank you...I'll be here all week!
Second, it's not unusual to dream you're in a high place and about to fall. But in my dreams, I always fly at such points. Not from famous buildings, but from high buildings or cliffs, what have you, I'll swoop down and continue flying.
Do you have flying dreams?
"I've never understood suicide in the first place...."
As the old saying goes "A permanent solution to a temporary problem"
No precautions in place against this sort of thing?
Is that true?
I've never heard that.
I don't have a reference document or link to which to refer you because I remember reading about it years ago in a psych book but that is what this book said.
I have no idea whether or not it is true. However, if you stop and think about it what happens when you awaken from a dream about falling? My heart always races so I would have to give some credibility to the idea.
"Actually, the experts say that most people who fall and/or jump from great heights usually die of heart failure before they ever hit whatever it was they were aiming for."
Wonder how they know that?
I guess the policemen and the EMTs get use to it, they more or less see it everyday.
They don't call it terminal velocity for nothing.
I would definitely have been one of the jumpers on 9/11. My husband says he would have stayed in the flames. Takes all kinds, huh?
I've heard that urge to do something completely off the wall like that referred to as the "Imp of the Perverse". I don't get it on high buildings, but I have to walk far around the grates in parking lots because I get the urge to throw my car keys down them. I'm also afraid I'm going to drop them down in there and be left stranded without access to my car.
So I know what you're talking about.
LQ
..abridged or unabridged, no "CLIFF NOTES"? :)
Leona Helmsly?
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