Suicide bridge


 * This article is about bridges used to commit suicide. For Suicide Bridge in London, see A1 road (London)

A suicide bridge is a bridge used frequently to commit suicide, most typically by throwing one's self off and into the water below (since a fall from that height into the water is almost inevitably fatal). In general, such bridges are also prominent landmarks.

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is generally considered to have had more suicides than any other in the world, the number currently being over 1,200. In 2005, documentary filmmaker Eric Steel set off controversy by revealing that he had tricked the bridge committee into allowing him to film the Golden Gate for months, and had captured 23 suicides on tape for his documentary The Bridge.

In Seattle, Washington, more than 230 people have committed suicide from the Aurora Bridge, making it the second deadliest suicide bridge in the USA. In the last decade, nearly 50 people jumped to their deaths, nine in 2006. . Seattle FRIENDS is a nonprofit group dedicated to eliminating suicides from the bridge. The group is advocating city and state officials to install a suicide barrier on the bridge.

The San Diego-Coronado Bridge is the third deadliest suicide bridge in the USA, followed by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay. Another bridge that has a high incidence rate for suicide is the Duke Ellington Bridge in Washington, D.C..

To reach such locations, those with the intention to commit suicide must often walk long distances to reach the point where they finally decide to jump, which many skeptics argue is proof that this means of suicide is indeed premeditated. There are a number of cases of people travelling over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to reach the Golden Gate by automobile, for instance. While this may not make utilitarian sense, it is consistent with hypotheses that people considering suicide may sometimes choose a specific scenario for their suicide rather than suicide by any comparable method per se.

Suicide prevention advocates believe that suicide by bridge is more likely to be impulsive than other means and that barriers can have a significant effect on reducing the incidence of suicides by bridge. One study in Washington D.C., showed that setting barriers in one bridge, the Duke Ellington Bridge, did not cause an increase of suicides at the nearby Taft Bridge. Families of victims and groups that help the mentally ill thus often lobby governments to erect such barriers. One new barrier is the Luminous Veil on the Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto, once considered the world's second most deadly bridge with over 400 jumps on record. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal, and the Arroyo Seco Bridge in Pasadena, California are other bridges that had formerly had unobstructed panoramic views that have seen barriers erected.

Special telephones are sometimes installed at such bridges, with connections to crisis hotlines.

San Francisco supervisor Tom Ammiano, who also is a representative on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, proposed in March 2005 to fund a study on erecting a suicide barrier on the bridge. Jump for Life is an alternative proposal to allow bungee jumping from the bridge structure, with proceeds to help fund suicide prevention.