The city of San Francisco has completed the installation of two stainless steel mesh nets on both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge as part of a campaign to stop suicides from taking place.
City officials approved the project more than a decade ago. but constant delays prevented the the suicide prevention barriers from being completed until now.
On Wednesday, officials announced that the 20-foot-wide netting was placed on each side of the 1.7-mile bridge as a way to deter jumping. There have been nearly 2,000 death since the bridge was erected in 1937.
Dennis Muligan, general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, said during the milestone event this week the barriers that were installed are ‘already working as intended.’
The stainless-steel rope netting is meant to act as a deterrent, and those who want to continue to jump will be badly injured, ABC News local-affiliate reported.
‘It’s like jumping into a cheese grater,’ he said, in part. ‘It’s not soft. It’s not rubber. It doesn’t stretch.’
He added: ‘We want folks to know that if you come here, it will hurt if you jump.’
In 2023, there was a significant decline of people who fell from an annual average of 30 to 14, and those deaths were in the areas where netting was not yet placed.
The stainless steel mesh netting that was place along both sides of The Golden Gate Bridge. On Wednesday, city officials announced the completed installation
Nearly 2,000 people have leapt to their deaths since The Golden Grate Bridge was erected in 1937
Kevin Hines, now 42, was 19 when he survived a suicide attempt by jumping off San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge Hines is one of 36 people who survived a fall from the Golden Gate Bridge
‘We have a continuous physical suicide barrier installed the full length of the 1.7-mile bridge on the east and the west side,’ Mulligan said. ‘The bridge is sealed up.’
The nets are placed 20 feet below the bridge’s deck and are made from marine-grade stainless steel that, he explained, can withstand the harshest of elements including, strong winds, salt water, and fog, Mulligan said.
Cars driving across the bridge will not see the barriers, but they will be visible to pedestrians who are standing near the rails.
Mulligan said before the installation was complete, there were those who still attempted to jump off the bridge, but instead fell into the net, and the crews helped them.
However, he said about a handful were able to jump into the ocean from the net and died.
Kevin Hines, now 42, who suffers bipolar disorder, was 19 in September 2000 when he miraculously survived a suicide attempt by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Hines is only one of 36 people who have survived after jumping off the iconic landmark.
For decades, he and his father and a group of other parents, who lost children on the bridge, advocated tirelessly for a barrier, but experienced pushback by some who wanted to keep the integrity of the bridge.
Hines, who now works a a suicide prevention advocate, said, ‘had the net been there, I would have been stopped by the police and gotten the help I needed immediately and never broken my back, never shattered three vertebrae, and never been on this path I was on.’
He added: ‘I’m so grateful that a small group of like-minded people never gave up on something so important.’
The project to build nets around the bridge started in 2008 and in 2014 Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District officials approved the project for $76 million, but construction costs skyrocked to $224 million, Mulligan told ABC News.