The Golden Gate Bridge has long had a reputation as one of America’s most beautiful landmarks, and also one of its deadliest. For decades it has been the “number one location” for suicide attempts, with nearly 40 known people jumping to their deaths in 2016 and about 200 more being talked away from its ledges. Now officials are taking a $200 million step to change that.
, after years of debate and development, California officials commemorated the beginning of construction on a “suicide deterrent” net that will span both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Expected to be finished by 2021, the project initially estimated to cost $76 million now has a price tag of over $200 million. Priya Clemens, spokesperson for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, says that increase is partly due to the “experimental” nature of the project, which led designers to underestimate how much it would actually cost to attach a net of this size across more than a mile and a half of open water and windy air.
When the project is completed, the stainless steel mesh net will be located about 20 feet below the bridge and stretch 20 feet out from its edges, running the length of seven football fields. If a person jumped onto the net, it would be unforgiving, Clemens says, perhaps leading to broken bones. And a person could still find their way to a drop off its upturned edge. But it is the net’s existence, more than its ability to catch, that officials hope will deter people from trying to jump in the first place.