The Only Reason To Walk On The Aurora Bridge Is To Get To The Other Side

Though they look like Lensbaby photos, I'd bet that those hard core photogs at the P-I use tilt-shift lens. Same effect, more expensive.

This is long overdue. The Golden Gate Bridge has had callboxes for a long time. I work for the Crisis Clinic, and I have long been an advocate of placing boxes with a direct connection to the Crisis Clinic on the Aurora Bridge. If it saves even one life, then it is worth it!

Nice - thanks for mentioning that. It struck me as well. The photos that accompany that article look remarkably similar to this technique, which I thought was weird but since it's kind of unfamiliar water for me I didn't say anything about it.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20061002/450suicide_aurora_2.jpg

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20061002/450suicide_lot.jpg

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20061002/450suicide_memorial.jpg

I think they look great.

Did the photographer for that article use a Lensbaby to take those shots? That's not something I'd thought I'd see in a newspaper.

If they were photoshopped to look like that, you'd think they would be labeled 'photo illustration.'

busted. Actually I am fronting. I'm not sure that closing the Aurora Bridge to foot traffic is a good idea, but I do think it could be looked into. Seriously, there is very very little traffic in those pedestrian lanes.

As things stand jumping from that bridge has got to be the easiest way to off yourself in the city and it's my understanding that a lot of suicides are crime of convenience-type things that can be prevented by making things just a little more difficult.

Razors pain you;

Rivers are damp;

Acids stain you;

And drugs cause cramp.

Guns aren't lawful;

Nooses give;

Gas smells awful;

The Aurora Bridge has signs and phones and possibly barriers and stuff;

You might as well live.

I figured it was YOU who was fronting, Dan!!

You're suggesting eliminating one of a handful of pedestrian/bike connections in this split-in-two city??

No way!

We could be cold motherfuckers fronting, but there might also be the issue that the preventative effect is not worth the trouble. According to the P-I, most of the people who have jumped had records of psychiatric treatment. There is no certainty, in these cases, then, that call boxes, signs, fences or nets would save lives; it would just prevent them from using the Aurora Bridge as a means to their ends. With that as a premise, it might not be worth it to close the bridge to foot traffic entirely if it doesn't really save lives, if it only forces the victims to pursue suicide by other means.

You guys are either some cold motherfuckers or you're fronting. I can't believe that saving yourself the bike ride down Fremont Ave and up Dexter is worth a few lives a year to you.

If we were a sane society we'd just have special suicide booths that emit a fatal gas, like they do in Sweden (probably).

People have been jumping off the Aurora bridge since they built it.

I'm more concerned with the inordinant amount of crazy accidental deaths on the Ballard Bridge. Remeber that girl in the Jeep; and the Safeway lady? Utility ladder to the head on your way to Ballard is no way to go.

So here's my solution: How about we paint a target in the parking lot of the Bleitz funeral home? Save a few steps.

I use the bridge to get from my house in upper fremont to downtown all the time when travelling by bike. You don't have to lose all the elevation of going down over the fremont bridge and then over Dexter.

I also walk out the bridge to look at the views every once in a while.

If a jumper is going to jump they're going to jump fucking with the Aurora bridge is a horrible idea.

You're right. And I misspelled "adherence" as well. So far the world has not ended, but keep your fingers crossed.

Barrier. B-A-R-R-I-E-R. Barrier.