As we reported earlier today, it looks like the Golden Gate Bridge will finally get a suicide barrier:

After decades worth of engineering studies and heated debate, Golden Gate Bridge officials have voted to erect a suicide barrier on the bridge. The winning design is a stainless steel net that will be hung beneath the iconic bridge span.

The Bridge’s board of directors has been under increasing pressure in recent years to do something more to prevent the numerous suicides that take place on the iconic span. Thirty eight people plummeted to their death last year from the bridge.

We’ve previously documented how a film was made capturing some of the suicides that take place on the Golden Gate Bridge. We expressed our frustration in July with the slow progress being made in erecting the barrier. We didn’t make any fans of some San Franciscans when we first blogged about this issue over two years ago in an entry entitled, What do San Franciscans Value? The View or Human Life?. With the use of the net, the hope is that the existing view can be maintained, while still saving lives.

But it’s still got a ways to go. The district has no money to pay for the net (apparently no one thought to begin looking at ways to fund the barrier two years ago when it was first considered). It will likely be at least two more years before the barrier is in place, assuming funds are found, environmental permits are received, and engineering studies are completed.

It’s taken two years and over 60 deaths to get to an approved suicide barrier plan for the bridge.

Sadly, it’ll probably cost another 60 or so more human lives before the net actually is approved and constructed.

Read the full article: Golden Gate Bridge Gets Suicide Net Approval

Dr. John Grohol is the founder & CEO of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 10 Oct 2008
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