The Bridge

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The following is a short essay I wrote for a writing class about the film "The Bridge" ...

The Bridge is a sobering documentary about suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate is the leading location for suicides in the world, by far. Over 1,200 people have jumped and died since the bridge opened in 1937. In addition, 26 people are known to have jumped and survived.

The 26 were extremely lucky. The bridge is 245 feet above the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, and if the fall doesn't kill you, then perhaps the freezing water (avg temp around 40 deg F) or the powerful tides (faster than most people can swim) or the sharks that infest the Bay will.

The film crew worked at the bridge for an entire year and actually filmed 24 suicides, then interviewed the families of those who jumped. The range of emotions exhibited by the family members is interesting, from rage to grief to resignation.

The most fascinating part of the film to me was the interviews of people who have survived the jump. As I mentioned earlier, it's not a large club, but when they were asked about their thoughts during the four seconds before they hit the water, every single one of them immediately expressed a variation of the same thing ... "I felt an overwhelming sense of regret that I was doing this. I wish I hadn't jumped."

Perhaps it's coincidence that they all felt the same way. Or perhaps it's some innate will to live that trumps even the desire to die. But none of the survivors ever attempted suicide again.

The film also addresses the issue of why the bridge doesn't have a safety railing to prevent people from jumping. The answer is simple enough, if not especially satisfying ... engineers are afraid additional railings would alter the bridge's aerodynamics enough to cause it to be unsafe in the high winds that swirl through the Golden Gate strait.

However, the bridge's Board of Directors just last year voted to install a $50 million safety net beneath the bridge. It's not clear when the net will be completed.

I found the film riveting. One of my best friends killed herself the day we graduated from high school, and so I've had a particular interest in the subject of suicide ever since. Yes, it's morbid. But I think it's worthwhile to examine the subject in a non-judgemental way. And who better to talk about suicide that someone who has survived a 245-foot jump into the San Francisco Bay?

I haven't seen the film but can easily understand your perspective on it in your essay. A friend called me one day after swallowing enough meds to kill herself, then in a panicked tone I've never heard before, asked me what to do. I told her to hang up and call 911 straight away. Because she was in a different country I couldn't call emergency services for her, nor go to her place to help.

In the event, she did survive the attempt at suicide, and has talked about it. She said she felt a deep sense of terror and regret as she was fading from the effects of the drugs she'd overdosed herself with.

The story of the bridge jumpers is all the more important because they had no possible recourse after they jumped. And the odds of survival are roughly 26 to 1200+ (0.02% or less), given the numbers.