Golden Gate Bridge Suicide

The Golden Gate Bridge is the world's leading suicide destination.

Since it's completion in 1937, an estimated 2000 people have jumped to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge that joins San Francisco and Marin county in California.. There have been over 1300 confirmed deaths. It is impossible to know the true number of suicide jumpers as many people may have jumped unseen and very strong currents below the bridge rush out into open ocean from the San Francisco Bay often making body recovery an impossibility.

The city of San Francisco has long debated the building of a "suicide barrier" on the bridge, a very contentious issue among San Franciscians. Opponents to a barrier complain that a high fence or net would detract from the aesthetic beauty of San Francisco's most famous landmark, while merely forcing a person intent on suicide to choose another method. Proponents of a suicide barrier argue that the bridge presents a unique, possibly romantic method of suicide that is easily accessible and often executed on impulsive feelings of desperation, especially among young people.

Golden Gate Bridge directors voted decisively on October 10, 2008 to try to stop people from jumping to their deaths from the landmark bridge by hanging nets along the sides of the span.