What the Golden Gate Bridge Anti-Suicide Network Is Teaching the Rest of the Country

The elegant beach that attracts tourists from all over the world is no longer a place where death awaits.

Since the completion of the steel mesh under the Golden Gate Bridge in January, the number of reported suicides has fallen by more than 80%, from an average of 15 to 20 over a six-month period to three, according to recently released data. Attempted suicides have also fallen, from 150 over six months to 56 through June, a drop of more than 60%.

The once controversial $224 million project has now become a case study in suicide prevention, drawing on the experience of other barrier-building campaigns in the United States, Canada and England.

RELATED: Suicide Rates on Golden Gate Bridge Drop Dramatically After Barrier Installed

“We’re thriving, not falling apart,” said Paul Muller, president and co-founder of the Bridge Rail Foundation, founded in 2006 with the mission of ending suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge.

“We share our stories with communities that are struggling with a similar problem,” Muller said, advising others on how to obtain funding, navigate government bureaucracies, obtain regulatory approval and develop a public campaign through community organizing. Families play a crucial role, he said, reminding officials of their enormous losses.

It is estimated that around 2,000 people died jumping from the bridge, but the true number is probably higher.

On the outskirts of Nashville, Trish Merelo and other suicide survivors tried to build a barrier on the Natchez Trace Bridge, but layers of bureaucratic obstacles in Tennessee seemed to block their mission at every turn.

When she discovered the Bridge Rail Foundation, “It was like a lifeline,” she said. “Their success, on the granddaddy of all bridges, was such a sign of hope for us all.”

Advice from the Bay Area group helped the Tennessee coalition develop a strategy that led to the construction last year of a protective fence on the 155-foot concrete arch bridge that spans the road and a wooded valley, she said, where 42 people have killed themselves since 2000.

On San Diego’s Coronado Bridge, where more than 400 people have taken their own lives, the wisdom of the Bridge Rail Foundation “has been integral in helping us get things done here,” said Rhonda Haiston, co-founder of the Coronado San Diego Bridge Collaborative for Suicide Prevention. Funding has now been authorized to install cables and netting, with construction set to begin in 2027.

In Palo Alto, where groups of teens committed suicide on the Caltrain tracks that cut through the city during the 2008-09 and 2014-15 school years, the Bridge Rail Foundation partnership “was critical … recommending best practices, sharing advocacy strategies, suggesting funding sources for our fencing and other safety measures,” said Stanford University psychiatry professor Dr. Shashank Joshi, leader of Project Safety Net, a community coalition working to improve youth mental health.

Calls for help also came from Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Massachusetts, Canada and England, Muller said.

The Golden Gate Bridge was once one of the world’s most popular suicide sites. When it was built in 1937, chief engineer Joseph Strauss was convinced that no one would end their life on the bridge. Its guardrails and safety systems would make suicide impossible, he said.

Three months later, despondent World War I veteran Harold Wobber committed suicide, proving Strauss wrong.

Other fatalities included Roy Raymond, the founder of Victoria’s Secret; the eldest son of former journalist, White House aide and California U.S. Senator Pierre Salinger; and a Fremont man distraught over his separation from his wife, who threw their 3-year-old daughter out of the water and then followed her.

For decades, decision-makers have argued over the effectiveness, aesthetics, practicality and cost of erecting a barrier on the iconic bridge famous for its orange-red color and ethereal haze.

Opponents argued that people who intended to end their lives would simply find another way. However, research by UC Berkeley professor Richard Seiden found that 94% of people who were persuaded not to jump were still alive or died of natural causes.

They worried that the bridge would lose its famous beauty. In response, the nets were suspended about 20 feet below the span. Blending into the steel structure, the nets are nearly invisible from a distance.