Over the past 20 years, roughly 30 confirmed suicides have been recorded at the Golden Gate bridge each year, or two or three each month. Last year, that number was down to eight.
Officials credit a suicide prevention net installed around the structure more than a year ago.
“Attempts have also declined since the net was completed,” said Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, the public affairs director for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, the entity that oversees the historic landmark. “In a typical year before the net, our staff would successfully intervene with up to 200 individuals at the bridge.”
Since the bridge was built in 1937, it has been one of the deadliest suicide locations in the world, with at least 1,700 suicides recorded. In 2024, after years of delays, officials completed a long-awaited suicide prevention barrier – the net – across a 1.7-mile span of the bridge. The funding came from the bridge district and state agencies such as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the California transportation department.
“The net is a proven design that deters people from jumping, serves as a symbol of care and hope to despondent individuals, and, if necessary, offers people a second chance,” the bridge district says.
Teams of trained professionals from the district, local fire departments and law enforcement agencies respond to net rescues, Cosulich-Schwartz said. In 2024 alone, bridge officers and partners performed 132 successful interventions – meaning officers saw people in danger, stopped them from harming themselves and escorted them from the bridge for further help.
The net was approved by the bridge district in 2014 for $76m, but construction costs rose to $224m. Critics of the project complained that a lot of money was being spent on deterring people who, they claimed, were determined to end their lives. Work began in 2018 but faced numerous construction delays, as well as resistance from people who didn’t want to alter the bridge.
But supporters of the safety net point to studies by Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, showing that most survivors do not try to harm themselves again. They argue stopping easy access to lethal means is crucial to preventing suicides. It’s a reminder, according to experts, that suicide is preventable, and recovery and healing are possible.
“Some of the survivors said the moment that their hands left the rail, they knew they didn’t want to die. I think if there was a net at the bridge in 2011,” said Kay James, whose son died at the bridge nearly 14 years ago. She paused and broke into tears. “Oh my God. If only.”
After James was notified that her son, Michael James Bishop, had not shown up at work early one morning in 2011, she called every hospital in San Francisco, fearing that Michael had gotten into a traffic accident. But by mid-afternoon on 28 March, she had received a call from the Marin county sheriff’s office. A motorist had seen Michael jumping into the bay. His body had been found, as had a suicide note.
“The night before he had been on his computer and had searched the Golden Gate Bridge. He knew that if he jumped, he wasn’t going to live,” James said.
Michael, a 28-year-old Californian, had been involved with organizations advocating for social justice, had played the violin with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony in San Francisco and had been taking urban planning classes.
Following her son’s suicide, James got involved with Bridge Rail Foundation, a group that originally advocated for raising the height of the bridge’s railing, a proposal that faced opposition because it would have blocked the sweeping views of the bay. It later pushed for a suicide net based on the success of similar installations around the world.
Paul Muller, a longtime northern California resident, started the Bridge Rail Foundation in 2016 alongside a group of parents who had faced tragedy at the bridge. The foundation’s years-long advocacy efforts yielded a significant payoff in January 2024, when the net was fully assembled. The net, placed 20ft (6m) down from the bridge’s deck, is not visible to those crossing the bridge by car. But pedestrians standing by the rails can see it.
Of the eight suicides in 2024, some occurred in areas where, due to design and engineering requirements, vertical fencing was installed instead of the safety net. According to Cosulich-Schwartz, the vertical fencing was selected during an environmental process in which historic preservation organizations participated.
The fence has been in place temporarily, Cosulich-Schwartz added, to allow the contractor access underneath the bridge for work and maintenance. Now that the contractor’s work is complete, the fence is being replaced with netting.
While the installation of the net and the reduction in suicides has furthered the Bridge Rail Foundation’s primary goal, Muller said he and the all-volunteer group would continue to monitor the effectiveness of the net.
He added: “If the number of interventions have gone down, it means that the word is getting out that suicide isn’t accessible at the Golden Gate Bridge any more.”
