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Aurora Bridge on the 4th of July by Seattlest Flickr photog gapey
The Aurora Bridge has a long tragic history of being the final structure some hopeless Seattleites ever stand upon. Since its opening in 1932, more than 200 people have jumped to their death from the bridge. It is second only to the Golden Gate Bridge in suicide deaths. Now it would seem those who live around the bridge, and the state of Washington, have decided to do something about that.
In 2006 a non-profit was created--FRIENDS (Fremont Residents, Individuals and Employees Nonprofit to Decrease Suicides) it was established to find methods to lessen Aurora's lethality. That same year six emergency phones and 18 signs urging people not to jump were placed on the bridge in hopes to discourage suicides. Yet nine people jumped to their death off the Aurora Bridge that year. With the urging of FRIENDS, and none too pleased Aurora was getting the reputation as a suicide bridge, Governor Gregoire and the state began to look for other solutions.
Their current proposal? A suicide prevention barrier, which would make it much more difficult for people to successfully jump to their death. Gregoire even included $1.4 million in last year's budget to build an "8-foot-suicide-prevention fence on the historic bridge." The Washington State Department of Transportation estimates the cost of building such a fence would be $7.3 million, so thus far the state is a few million short. Any fence would not only have to overcome the vote for budget approval, but the design would also have to be approved by the city's ever busy Landmark Preservation Board.
While Seattlest understands the urge to find a simple engineering fix to the problem, we have to realize the deaths aren't the structure's fault. And that a fence, like the emergency phones and signs that came before it, are a brick and mortar solution to a painfully human problem. That $7 million the new suicide prevention fence would cost? Better spent on more accessible mental health care.
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Whomever thought up this fence idea has never been to the Empire State Building. That place has crazy security and still... they jump.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying I'm in favor of the fence -- I really don't know if I am or not.
But, I do know that more and more, people are considering "means prevention" a serious way of suicide prevention. Not too log ago, the general thinking was, "Why build the fence? They'll just find another way to kill themselves." Now, studies show that's not true. The vast majority of suicides are done in the heat of the moment, and not pre-planned. The idea is that anything -- anything at all -- that prolongs their life by not letting them die in that moment where they really want to, is likely to save their life, because they probably won't want to die a few minutes later.
So, there are a lot of things to consider when building a fence like this, and I don't know if it's a good idea for the city or not. But, I definitely do believe having one would save lives.
it's not just the lives of the jumpers, it's the quality of life for the people who live or work below the bridge.
(of course, this is fantastic comment bait)
I lived through this whole argument back in my home town of Augusta, Maine regarding re-installing a suicide fence on the Memorial Bridge after a major renovation (Do a google search or check out this article).
This much I know, that bridge was a suicide magnet back in the 70's & 80's, but once they put up the fence suicides virtually disappeared, despite the fact that there were two more bridges within site that potential suicide victims could have walked to.
My opinion: fences may be ugly, but they work.
Unlike Dan Savage and despite having grown up watching the Aurora bridge from my childhood home's window, I am not concerned with ugly. Just effectiveness.
If a fence really will stop people jumping to their deaths, I am all for it. But I think, even if you stop then them, on that attempt, it's just a temporary fix to a long term problem.
I have to agree with Eco Geek. A lot of suicidal people may be helped if given the chance. A lot of times, running into enough barriers to make you start questioning the validity of an idea is all you need to ask for help.
I think the fence will certainly help reduce the number of Aurora suicides in a bandaid-on-the-larger-wound sort of way, and maybe that's enough reason to build it in the end. I have to say though, Abbey's point about the $7 million that could be going towards improving Seattle's mental health care system is right on. We can't be suicide-proofing the entire world; there's no way we could (or should) do that. What we CAN do is increase awareness of the complexities of mental illness (and destigmatize it to the point where we can at least talk about it frankly), beef up mental health care coverage in our insurance systems, and work on creating and nourishing supportive communities within our urban jungle. It's a huge problem -- and as Abbey says, it's a painfully human one.
Seattle's cold cold population and drabness is what is making people depressed and want to jump in the first place.
Someone linked to this New Yorker article about jumpers on the Golden Gate Bridge in the Slog comment frenzy mentioned by SciencevsRomance @3 -- Letter from California: Jumpers. Pretty intense and revealing reading (especially for before 10am).
Please, build the fence. I used to work in a building below the bridge, and witnessed someone jump (worse yet, witnessed them land right in front of me as I was walking to work) and it completely traumatized me. To this day, I can't stand the sight of that damn bridge.
If the fence keeps just one person from jumping, I think it's worth it.
I agree we can't go around fencing up everything. But if we can take the largest magnet and stop it's attraction, we can help a lot more people.
But 7 million for a fence.... yeesh.
"If the fence keeps just one person from jumping, I think it's worth it."
For $7 million, it better keep a lot more than one person from jumping. I don't care if some random stranger decides to off themselves, to be honest.
I'd like to see catch netting like they use for bridge construction workers to prevent them falling. That way the views wouldn't be spoiled.
catch netting would just bait daring college kids to jump for the fun of landing in a net. they'd have to attach a fine to landing in the net.
i agree with the fence, even if it is a band-aid fix. i don't really dig the negative connotation to "band-aid fix," because sometimes band-aids are really helpful.
when you fall off your bike, the bigger problem is learning how to ride the damn thing, but that doesn't mean you don't need to stick a band-aid on your scrapes. the fence should be part of a larger picture that addresses mental healthcare, economic issues, education, community building, and all those other things that give people options.
Bandaids certainly can help scrapes, but when I use that terminology I'm referring to large, gaping wounds that will swallow a bandaid whole. On a systemic level, it's my belief that one fence on one bridge is not going to effectively address the startling numbers of suicides here in Seattle.
it won't stop suicides overall, but it'll definitely reduce the amount of city employees paid to clean up after someone jumps off a bridge and goes splat or splash! from a purely logistical civic standpoint, it'll save money and resources in the longrun, i'd guess.
Might be a good idea if the theory about buying time and interfering with means as a prevention strategy is correct. My symathies for those living and working nearby are minimal. Yeah, it's traumatizing to see, but the fence, or any suicide prevention progam, needs absolutely to be about the suicidal person in question and not those who chose to buy a house with a nice view of the lake. If it ruins your view, move.
A barrier might be a good idea to stop those people who jump "in the heat of the moment". I also have sympathy for the users of the bridge and the people who live or work nearby. They shouldn't have to move because of something like this. That's ludicrous.
The barrier doesn't necessarily have to be an ugly fence either. See Toronto's Luminous Veil for instance:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinginacity/2156074963/
putting up a fence would just be a short-term fix to a much more fundamental problem.
we really need to focus on ending all human suffering of any kind.
until we eliminate all human suffering, some people will find life unbearable - and choose to end it prematurely.