As engineers work around the clock to complete a net to prevent suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge, we look at the history and what's at stake.
. The nonprofit Bridge Rail Foundation, made up of psychiatrists and families of bridge jumpers, has been pushing officials to erect the barrier for years.
. On Aug. 7, a World War I veteran named Harold Wobber said in his final words to a friend whom he was walking with on the bridge, “This is as far as I go.”“At the top, I took this huge gasp of air,” said John Kevin Hines, who was 19 at the time of his jump. “It’s like I was reborn that day.” Like many of the few survivors have said, he regretted his decision in midair.
Despite the staggering number of lives lost — about 30 yearly — it was only in 2014 that San Francisco Bay Area officialsto fund the net. Since then, costs have ballooned to $206.7 million, Golden Gate Bridge district spokesperson Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz told me.