Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, March 9, 2010
Death / City Hey, That's Our Bridge!
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 10:38 AM
Over in the LA Times!
It is the second- or third-most-jumped-off bridge in the U.S., behind the Golden Gate (and by some estimates the Coronado), and its overland portion looms above the neighborhood of Fremont, which for decades has lived with the unsettling possibility that a body could come hurtling past at any moment.
Its reign of terror is coming to an end with the installation of a suicide prevention barrier (at last). Feel the hometown pride.
- Seattle Municipal Archives / Stranger Flickr
- The Aurora Bridge under construction in 1931.
2
Have you ever walked across that thing? The entire time you feel as though the police might show up to check on your intentions. "I'm just walking across the bridge..."
3
You know, we could sell tickets for people to watch folks plunge to their death (or a world of paralysis). Think of the extra revenue we could raise for the City of Seattle.
4
I'm not really a fan of the "stop wasting my tax dollars" but hot damn....this project is ripe for those accusations....
6
Why, oh why is there always some idiot like @ 1 who says "can't they jump off the barrier?" Have you ever seen a suicide prevention barrier? They go up several feet, the curve backward so that you have to hang upside down like a fly in order to get to the top. Sometimes they put razor wire on them too.
Oh yeah, they'll just climb over that. Numbnuts.
Oh yeah, they'll just climb over that. Numbnuts.
7
it looks like a prison that the majority of us will have to live inside because of the few who will jump.
8
BTW, it's always fun whenever there's a Slog about this. You really get to find out who has no compassion on these threads.
9
A buddy of mine used to live in the apartment house across the street from the troll. Next door lived a guy, call him Donny, who was the very archetype of semi-functional hippie slackerdom, and was relied upon by a great many people for access to every sort of intoxicant that springs naturally from the earth.
Donny related later his first thought as a metro bus came plunging over the side of the bridge one day and landed in the yard just a few feet away from where he stood:
"These shrooms can not be that good."
Donny related later his first thought as a metro bus came plunging over the side of the bridge one day and landed in the yard just a few feet away from where he stood:
"These shrooms can not be that good."
11
It is a fact that creating barriers to potential suicide locations actually prevents suicides and not just delay them.
You see a few days later they sober up and realize what a silly thing to feel bad about in the first place. Life is ALWAYS full of BOTH ups and downs so if you are experiencing a big down in your life, something very good is on its way.
You see a few days later they sober up and realize what a silly thing to feel bad about in the first place. Life is ALWAYS full of BOTH ups and downs so if you are experiencing a big down in your life, something very good is on its way.
12
They're still going to jump.
Now they'll jump somewhere else.
Seriously, this is a frickin waste of time.
Now they'll jump somewhere else.
Seriously, this is a frickin waste of time.
13
By the way, when they do this, will there be some artwork under the 1 percent for art set aside?
I envision a fairy, wings on fire, falling down into a toothy-grinned maw in the canal ...
I envision a fairy, wings on fire, falling down into a toothy-grinned maw in the canal ...
14
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! All of us must now suffer because of the actions of few. If they want to jump let them! Who are we to say?
The design is so ugly. The bridge will now be more depressing which will lead to more suicides. It is a snake eating itself!BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! BOO, I say!
The design is so ugly. The bridge will now be more depressing which will lead to more suicides. It is a snake eating itself!BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! BOO, I say!
15
Speaking of suicide barriers - does the Denny bridge over I-% only have a barrier on the north side of the street? What's up with that? I always get freaked out walking home over that thing.
16
Oh, and those who say that people who are anti this "suicide barrier" have no compassion: Do you really think this is an effective solution to people that want to kill themselves? This is the easiest thing to do is all that it is. They already tried an easier "fix" in those phones, just ignore the problem. This is just a much uglier phone that we must all deal with.
17
I suspect that the barrier on Denny over I-5 is to protect a traffic camera or freeway sign since it only spans a few meters.
19
Paint bulls-eyes on the ground. I imagine it'd really kill the vibe and people would just move along.
20
Maybe the fence will allow people to stand on the bridge during fireworks. Seems like the cops keep people off the sidewalk because of the worry that a crush of people might push people over the railing.
21
That is the most shit headed description of depression and mental illness I've ever seen.
You see a few days later they sober up and realize what a silly thing to feel bad about in the first place. Life is ALWAYS full of BOTH ups and downs so if you are experiencing a big down in your life, something very good is on its way.
That is the most shit headed description of depression and mental illness I've ever seen.
22
Why not just get rid of the sidewalks and make the roadway wider? How often do people actually walk from one end of the bridge to the other? I don't think I've ever seen a pedestrian on the bridge.
23
I'd like to see the figures on the number of suicides before and after the suicide phones were installed, but since the number and frequency of jumpers is kept secret, I doubt we'll ever know.
Full disclosure: for the better part of nine years I've worked in Fremont with a view of the bridge. I used to ride my bike under it every day--never seen a jumper.
Full disclosure: for the better part of nine years I've worked in Fremont with a view of the bridge. I used to ride my bike under it every day--never seen a jumper.
24
Suicide barriers don't work because they make it impossible for people to commit suicide, they work because they make it more difficult to commit suicide. If you're trying to commit suicide you're in a giving up mood anyway.
25
Waste of money. $10-15M.
There is no research that the barriers actually reduce the number of suicides, rather than simply shifting location or method. Further, the recidivism rate of attempted suicides is very high, so even if the barriers were effective, it would be pretty useless.
How many people who aren't going to end up killing themselves later could be saved with that money? Why should we care more for the jumpers than for the hungry or poor?
There is no research that the barriers actually reduce the number of suicides, rather than simply shifting location or method. Further, the recidivism rate of attempted suicides is very high, so even if the barriers were effective, it would be pretty useless.
How many people who aren't going to end up killing themselves later could be saved with that money? Why should we care more for the jumpers than for the hungry or poor?
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