After years of pressure from the families of victims, the installation of a Suicide Deterrent System on the Golden Gate Bridge is almost complete, with an expected completion in December 2023. On average, 30 people or more die by suicide each year, and according to officials, “hundreds more are stopped by efforts of the Golden Gate Patrol, California Highway Patrol, and other law enforcement, and citizen intervention.” An estimated 2,000 are known to have died by jumping to their death since the bridge’s opening in 1937. The count has never been precise, and the number is likely higher since not all jumps are witnessed and bodies found. 

Workers are nearly finished installing a Suicide Deterrent System, 3 ½ miles of $217 million in stainless steel nets. Engineers painstakingly designed the net to minimize interference with daily operations and maintenance of the bridge’s iconic structure and impact on Bridge views and appearance. The net is nearly invisible from a distance and blends into the steelwork but is visible to anyone standing at the rail. The net will be placed 20 feet below the sidewalk and extend 20 feet from the bridge, a design chosen through a “public process which solicited input from the community.” The selection allows “open, scenic vistas to be intact while preventing anyone from easily jumping to the water below,” retaining the bridge’s aesthetic appeal. Jumping into the net will result in “significant bruises, sprains, and possibly broken bones.” Denis Mulligan, general manager of the organization who oversees the bridge, said, “We want the message to be that it is going to hurt, and also jumping off the bridge is illegal.”