Suicide bridge
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
It is a well-known phenomena that certain bridges are especially popular for people attempting suicide. In general these are bridges that are prominent landmarks. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is generally considered to have had more suicides then any other in the world with more than a thousand over its history. 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 nearly 20 suicides on tape. Bridges that are "suicide magnets" include the Bloor Street Viaduct in Toronto, Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal, and the Duke Ellington Bridge in Washington, D.C..
To reach such locations, those intent on suicide may pass over other bridges, even taller ones. There are a number of cases of people travelling over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to reach the Golden Gate, 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.
One thing that has been demonstrated is that these suicides are more likely then others to be impulsive and that barriers have an important effect on reducing the number of suicides. 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 Bloor Street Viaduct in Toronto, once considered the world's second most deadly bridge with over 400 jumps in its history. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Arroyo Seco Bridge in Pasadena, California are other former suicide magnets that have seen barriers erected.
Reference
- Jumpers: The Fatal Grandeur of Golden Gate Bridge (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031013fa_fact), The New Yorker, October 13, 2003 p48
