It’s 75 metres (245 ft) down from the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge to the water below. That drop will kill most people (*). And that’s exactly what it did to over 1,200 people who jumped off the bridge since its opening in 1937.
San Francisco’s most famous landmark, the world’s longest suspension bridge at its opening, has earned the sad distinction of being the world’s most popular suicide spot (others include Aokigahara, the “Sea of Trees” at the foot of Mount Fuji [Japan], Niagara Falls [US/Can], Beachy Head and Clifton Bridge [both in England]).
The number of jumpers from the bridge, spanning the over 2 km (6,700 ft) wide strait at the entrance of San Francisco Bay, has varied greatly throughout the years, never more than around 10 until 1960 (with the exception of the 20 of 1948), then rising dramatically to peak at 40 in 1977 and dropping again to a low of less than 10 in 1990.
In 2004, 24 people jumped off the Bridge, spiking to 38 in 2007 – an increase many blamed on The Bridge, a documentary about the place’s fatal attraction. In 2008, authorities voted to install a ’safety net’ six metres below the Bridge (although how this should prevent people from jumping from the net is a question that should definitely be covered by the study to be conducted on the net’s impact).
This cartogram details the exact locations of the suicides, corresponding them with the 128 light poles that line the Bridge (east to west, even ones on the oceanside, uneven ones on the bayside). For obvious reasons, the areas closest to the edges of the Bridge are less popular (most suicides aim for maximum effect, i.e. longest way down). Remarkably, the bayside is a lot more popular than the oceanside. The hotspot is light pole 69 with – if I counted correctly – 56 recorded suicides.
Many thanks to Szymon Piotr Nogalski, who most recently submitted this map, and others who did so earlier. The map was sourced here on SFGate, the online presence of the San Francisco Chronicle, the newspaper that first published this suicide map.
(*) After a fall of about 4 seconds, a jumper would hit the water at approximately 140 km/h (87 mph) – lethal in most cases. Those surviving the actual fall usually succumb to hypothermia, induced by the cold (8°C/47°F) water of the Bay. Over the decades, 26 people are known to have survived the fall and the cold water.
Nice map. Thanks for the excelent work you’ve been doing.
Comment by fernando — July 12, 2009 @ 12:08 am
Interesting, as ever.
This article – http://everything2.com/user/Templeton/writeups/Golden+Gate+Bridge – collects a number of interesting details about Golden Gate suicides.
This one – http://everything2.com/user/Ouroboros/writeups/They+always+jump+off+the+east+side – addresses the “east side” question quite neatly.
Comment by 256 — July 12, 2009 @ 12:34 am
It’s not that remarkable that the bay side is more popular than the ocean side. The ocean side is not open to pedestrian traffic — it’s bikes only, so if you’re there on foot, something’s definitely weird. On the bay side, there’s tons of foot traffic, so you blend in until the last moment.
Comment by Danek — July 12, 2009 @ 1:09 am
[...] the excellent Strange Maps [...]
Pingback by Macabre map « A Seat By The Fire — July 12, 2009 @ 1:49 am
In 1998 I had the opportunity to test the effectiveness of a proposed suicide barrier for the bridge. A section of the wire fence design was erected in the administrative parking lot on the SF side. Climbing over it was very difficult — it was tall, curved inward, and made of thin wire, which hurt like hell without gloves. Only one of us in the group, a former Royal Marine, managed to climb all the way over (he used gloves). I managed to pry two wires apart at one section and slip between them, but there were other sections of the design where this was impossible. I think one or two people managed to cut the wires using an assortment of tools provided to us. Few people seeking to attempt suicide plan ahead to the point where they would pack gloves or wire cutters, so it seemed like a very effective design. That barrier design would not have significantly impacted views from the bridge, given that it was made of thin, horizontal wires. Maintaining the view is a major reason why there is no barrier today. I think a combination of cost and weight killed that design, though.
Comment by TS — July 12, 2009 @ 2:07 am
Thanks for another very interesting map.
I have to imagine, though, that drowning claims at least as many jumpers who survive the fall as hypothermia does.
Comment by Brad — July 12, 2009 @ 2:31 am
I wonder at which points the 26 survivors jumped from.
Comment by Quiddity — July 12, 2009 @ 3:14 am
As someone who has faced these deamons, this is a sad map. I think that beyond just which side you can walk on, the bay side has more jumpers because there is something to look at there. Second to this bridge was the Prince Edward Viaduct here in Toronto, they have since built a “luminous veil” to stop jumpers and it has reportedly worked.
Comment by Anonymous — July 12, 2009 @ 3:32 am
I can not recommend highly enough a documentary about the phenomenon of suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge entitled, The Bridge, which was released in 2006.
It may seem like a morbid topic, but the movie captures a strange haunting aspect that the GG Bridge holds.
Comment by Drew — July 12, 2009 @ 5:25 am
You make one observation about the pattern of suicides that is discussed in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0799954/ is that the vast majority of suicides jump Eastward.
The view westward from the Bridge looks out into the Pacific and the horizon: emptiness.
The view eastward from the Bridge looks into the heart of the Bay: Alcatraz Island, Angel Island, Tiburon in Marin, the Marina and North Beach Districts of San Francisco, the Bay Bridges, and all the houses covering the hills of the East Bay (Albany and Berkeley).
Some argue that the majority of the suicides’ action of jumping TOWARDS where there are are people and civilization is a subconscious action of theirs whereby they are still trying to reach out to people, and do not truly wish to kill themselves.
Comment by Drew — July 12, 2009 @ 5:41 am
Another much-used suicide spot used to be the Grande Duchesse Charlotte Bridge in Luxembourg. Here they did erect a (probably very expensive) suicide-prevention net, because there are houses and a road beneath and the suicides were endangering other people.
Apart from this situation however, I wonder how much point there is to such nets. At my University there was a tower which gave fine views over the surrounding area. They closed it because of the people who committed suicide from the top. But the result was that people who wanted to commit suicide just jumped off other buildings instead – there were plenty which, although not so high, were certainly high enough.
So we lost our view, and nobody benefited. If anything other people were put at risk, because some of the other buildings were at locations where many more people walked past each day.
Comment by Stephen — July 12, 2009 @ 6:37 am
The view of the empty ocean has nothing to do with the low amount of suicides there. The west side of the bridge is bicycle only, so there is never any pedestrians. Or maybe its just that bikers aren’t as suicidal.
Comment by Patrick — July 12, 2009 @ 8:02 am
There is a bridge in London known as Suicide Bridge where sadly lots of people have tried to take their own lives. One side faces London (with a panoramic view of the city centre), the other away. Most who actually jump choose to face away from London.
The bridge also marks a borough boundary, so the first question asked when someone jumps is which side, as they need to know which council to inform.
Comment by Salvadore Vincent — July 12, 2009 @ 9:25 am
@Patrick
“Or maybe its just that bikers aren’t as suicidal.”
Driving a bicycle in an automobilist country is suicidal enough. Anyone who plays with a suicide (therefore is not permanently aware to save his live through every days car traffic) AND drives a bicycle is not expected to make it until the bicycle lane on the bridge.
Comment by willi — July 12, 2009 @ 9:33 am
Light polr number 69 is located just in the middle between the two towers (Marin and San Francisco). Suicide jumpers love symmetry…
Comment by jpcroc — July 12, 2009 @ 9:53 am
unlike most types of suicide, bridge jumping is actually more correlated with impulse control than depression. around washington dc, a barrier was put up on one bridge, and there was a net decrease in suicides — would-be jumpers just didn’t jump, rather than going to one of the other bridges nearby.
Comment by rmd — July 12, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
In case folks are curious, the reason only 833 have locations assigned is that the Golden Gate Bridge District used to release stats about suicides each year, but they stopped after 833 because they were worried that people would vie to be number 1000. It wasn’t theory, either, there was a similar boost in jumpers when the suicide count was just below 500. They still keep the numbers, they just don’t release them to the public.
Comment by Flooey — July 12, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
@jpcroc
As the bridge has a small arc it is also the highest point to jump from. But as statistics tell this is not a factor for successful suicide.
@strangemaps
Actually in October 2008 a suicide net was decided upon and is apparently awaiting funding and implementation.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/11/MNSH13F0MH.DTL
Comment by Sork — July 12, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
That image is far too small. The Bridge was an interesting documentary, though it failed to make me want to jump off.
Comment by Marc — July 12, 2009 @ 4:10 pm
[...] Strange Maps has uncovered this image from the SFGate that shows the number of suicides that have taken place on the Golden Gate Bridge based on the location of the jumper. The Golden Gate Bridge is divided up into 128 poles with even-numbered poles on the West side of bridge (where there is a bike path) and odd-numbered poles on the East side (where there is a pedestrian walkway). [...]
Pingback by Number of suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge | Doobybrain.com — July 12, 2009 @ 4:58 pm
A few other thing to notice about this map:
1: There’s a similar peak at post 68 – just about the center point on the ocean side. And while it’s not directly across from post 69 (that would be post 70), it’s close enough.
2: Posts 68 and 69 must be the highest points on the bridge, as the center point over the water would be posts 77 and 78.
3: I wonder if the skewing of suicides on the bay side of the bridge is due to the parking on both sides being on the bay side of the bridge. After all, crossing to the other side takes thought and effort the impulsive suicider wouldn’t think of using. This would explain (in part) the skewing of suicides on the San Francisco side of the bridge.
4: Finally: when did they make the ocean side of the bridge bikers only?
Comment by Don H. — July 12, 2009 @ 5:04 pm
The New Yorker had a fascinating article on the phenomenon way back in 2003 that I still remember reading. It covers the history of the bridge and why its railings are so low in the first place, as well as interviews with survivors and the psychology of suicide. Luckily it’s still available on the web. Jumpers:
The fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Washington Post has another, more recent article that mostly focuses on current efforts to finally install a barrier. Also an interesting read. The Golden Gate: A Bridge Too Deadly?
Comment by Mike Murphy — July 12, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
What interests me in this map is how many of the suicides were apparently jumps onto land. I counted roughly 70-80 between posts 1-42 and 113-128. It seems an odd choice. I wouldn’t think the falls would be as high and I would also expect a subconscious preference for jumping into water.
Comment by DemetriosX — July 12, 2009 @ 7:29 pm
A few things seem odd, though:
- How are these statistics collected? How do we know where people jumped from, for those cases of suicide when no one saw them jump?
- How many people commit suicide at the bridge, and no one knows about it? Where do those people jump from?
- Are there much more recorded suicides at pole 69 because it maybe is the most visible, and the easiest to observe when people try to commit suicide?
Comment by MDHeart — July 12, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
Interesting map…
By the way, the assertion that the water temperature in the Bay is 8°C/47°F isn’t right, at least for the majority of the year. I’ve swam in the Bay a dozen or more times (without a wetsuit) between early April and late September and it’s usually in the mid-to-upper 50s (F) and sometimes in the low 60s.
Comment by Adrian — July 12, 2009 @ 8:31 pm
i’m surprised no one has mentioned that there are more suicides on the San Francisco side of the bridge. I think that’s probably because more of the jumpers are coming from San Francisco, since it is a bigger city, and many only walk until they think they are at a place high enough to reliably kill them.
Comment by kip — July 13, 2009 @ 3:16 am
The NYer article cited in #22 was superb: I loved the quote from the survivor who said, “As I was falling, I realised there was nothing in my life that I couldn’t fix, except the fact that I’d jumped off this goddamn bridge.”
Comment by Peter Marmorek — July 13, 2009 @ 1:03 pm
[...] Strange Maps has uncovered this image from the SFGate that shows the number of suicides that have taken place on the Golden Gate Bridge based on the location of the jumper. Something I didn’t know until seeing this infographic, is that The Golden Gate Bridge is divided up into 128 poles with even-numbered poles on the West side of bridge and odd-numbered poles on the East side. [...]
Pingback by Golden Gate Bridge suicides » The Sly Oyster | culture, entertainment, liberal arts, shenanigans » Blog Archive — July 13, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
[...] map of death and [...]
Pingback by Stones Cry Out - If they keep silent… » Things Heard: e76v1 — July 13, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
#23 – I used to believe that if I were ever to fall out of a plane without a parachute, I should aim for a body of water, as that would consitute a softer landing and a better chance of surviving. I know better know.
But if a jumper thinks on the same lines as I used to, he may wrongly believe that it’s not the impact of the water that will kill him, but drowning. And if given other choices, drowning doesn’t really sound like the most appealing way to go.
Comment by patrik — July 13, 2009 @ 2:52 pm
I would think the damage caused by hitting the water would vary depending on how you hit – feet first, you’ve got a chance (I’ve jumped off 50+ foot cliffs, and you definitely want to point your toes); belly flop and it might as well be concrete.
Comment by Captain Oblivious — July 13, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
Interesting article here on suicides at Beachy Head and London’s ‘Suicide Bridge’:
http://magonia.haaan.com/2009/jumpers/
Comment by johnrimmer — July 13, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
Live and Let Die
Comment by Pual McCartney — July 13, 2009 @ 4:55 pm
#33: No. A view to a kill.
Comment by Sork — July 13, 2009 @ 8:19 pm
You contemplate the setting sun,
Unaware of your disorientation.
Dis-orient: turned away from the east.
The shifting current seems to conspire against you.
Mr. Nichols, you fail to see that you’ve always stood outside of this window, perched on the threshold of oblivion.
Countless man made stories above the truth
For so long you’ve stood facing the setting sun
Mistaking the complimentary unified duality of nature as being right or wrong
Good or evil
God or devil
Mr. Nichols instead of stepping from this ledge into the downfall of your up rise
Why not just turn around
Lessen the intensity of your western glare and face the rising sun
Note the energy swirling from its center
How it illumines us all and only the birds fly first class…
Comment by L — July 13, 2009 @ 9:25 pm
[...] 398 – Bridge to Nowhere: a Map of Golden Gate Jumpers – Actually, part of what’s fascinating here is the definite preference for the bay side, rather than the ocean side. What, they want to enjoy the view on the way down? [...]
Pingback by Unblogged Bits for Monday, 13 July 2009 | ***Dave Does the Blog — July 14, 2009 @ 12:01 am
Regarding the pedestrian side vs. the bike side of the bridge, the first time I visited SF my friend and I walked across the “wrong” side of the bridge. I wondered why I only saw bikes, but didn’t realize we’d done the wrong thing until the end. No one said anything to us, or gave us looks or anything as far as I recall.
Comment by Evan — July 14, 2009 @ 3:02 am
@ 26: kip
That’s the first thing I thought too. Most people in the Bay Area live South or South East of the bridge, which would mean they would come from the San Francisco (South/bay side) of the bridge. Is it really a surprise that they would jump from the most convenient side?
Not to be morbid, but they’re a statistic at this point. Not as many people are going to dissect their point of suicide as the original. The meaning behind their death and motivation is what a ’suicide note’ is for, no?
Comment by BAT — July 14, 2009 @ 3:10 am
Interesting factoid — one of the Golden Gate jumpers who survived later fell off the bridge fatally. However, his story is a little more complicated, in that the second fall may not have been intentional, and both falls were part of a publicity-generating protest rather than a more typical suicide.
I think SF should put up a suicide barrier; while you can’t prevent all suicides, most are done on the spur of the moment, and so putting up some kind of an obstacle is usually enough to stop them.
Comment by Calli Arcale — July 14, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
[...] 398 – Bridge to Nowhere: a Map of Golden Gate Jumpers [...]
Pingback by Consigli per la lettura – 15 July 2009 | Rebelot — July 15, 2009 @ 9:57 pm
[...] From Strange Maps: A Map Of Golden Gate Jumpers Filed under: Media, Public Debate — chr1 @ 6:43 pm Tags: Stange Maps, Suicide, The Golden Gate Bridge Full post and map here. [...]
Pingback by From Strange Maps: A Map Of Golden Gate Jumpers « Chris Navin — July 16, 2009 @ 1:43 am
[...] [via StrangeMaps] [...]
Pingback by Map shows Golden Gate Bridge marked by suicides — July 16, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
Interesting that the most popular spot is pole 69, nice to see even suicide jumpers have a sense of humour!
Comment by CityTrader — July 17, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
[...] Vía la interesantísima Strange Maps. [...]
Pingback by ¿De visita en San Francisco? No puede faltar… « Efecto Corconte – Al Puro Estilo — July 17, 2009 @ 7:25 pm
Just how far off the ground are poles # 2 and 5? I noticed only one person each jumped there, or at least only one succeeded in killing themselves there.
I map of failed suicides on the bridge would be interesting.
Comment by Lurker — July 18, 2009 @ 2:20 am
@43: If they had a sense of humor, they probably wouldn’t be committing suicide.
Comment by Wilson — July 18, 2009 @ 9:20 pm
The reason that more jump from the side facing inland than the ocean-facing side is probably that if you are coming out of the city, either in your car or bus or foot, it is easier to get to the side facing inland; there is nothing significant in it. I lived in SF for years and have been to the bridge many times.
The safety net, which I oppose, is testament to the ability of a small vocal lobby to get their goals achieved. All credit to them.
Comment by Flynn — July 20, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
A very interesting map.
Comment by Living — July 22, 2009 @ 3:39 am
When somebody jumps the bridge authorities throw a cylindrical flare measuring about 18″ long and about 4″ wide down from the bridge to the water. This is used to guide a coast guard boat to the water.
I once stood next to a woman who worked for the bridge as she did this (there was a corpse floating in the water). All I could think of as I watched that flare spin end over end toward the water was that it sure took a long time to get down there. I wouldn’t want that much time to reconsider.
Comment by elambend — July 22, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
The problem is, of course, not that jumpers CAN jump off the bridge, it is that they DO jump off the bridge. If you make it so they can’t kill themselves there, they’ll just kill themselves another way.
I think the best way to deter jumpers is to write the names of the people who killed themselves at each lamp post, and make sure that there is room for more names on it. They’d see that and be like “oh I was going to kill myself here but I don’t want to have my name up here, that would just be embarrassing.”
I’d bet that the number of suicides would go down.
But of course people can kill themselves if they want. Nobody should be able to stop people from killing their own selves.
Why is it necessary to stop them? It’s like the people who want to live are courageous and have a righteous goal to save everyone else from intentional death. People are like “It’s not your time” or “Don’t be a pussy” but it’s stupid because it’s their fucking life, let them do whatever the hell they want with it.
Also, #47 & #24, good job being nazis.
Comment by Name — July 24, 2009 @ 6:58 am
HEHE I’m a nazi too!! yay!!
Comment by Name — July 24, 2009 @ 7:00 am
seems like an ideal way to kill oneself- considerate (minimal cleanup) and almost certain to be successful. a win-win. neat map, too.
Comment by x — July 24, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
@#3 –
The east side of the span is pedestrians only. Bikes are allowed on the west side only – but pedestrians are not prevented on that side.
Comment by Drew — July 27, 2009 @ 5:58 am
I’d like to see a study of the following barrier design: Every 20 feet, place a sign that says, “If you jump from this bridge you will break all the bones in your body, then float for several minutes in agonizing pain before finally drowning or freezing to death.” I’d bet most suicides would prefer to go home and slit their wrists in their bathtub like civilized people and the rest of us could enjoy the view.
Comment by Alex Chaffee — August 2, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
From that excellent New Yorker article:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fa_fact?currentPage=all
Jumpers tend to idealize what will happen after they step off the bridge. “Suicidal people have transformation fantasies and are prone to magical thinking, like children and psychotics,” Dr. Lanny Berman, the executive director of the American Association of Suicidology, says. “Jumpers are drawn to the Golden Gate because they believe it’s a gateway to another place. They think that life will slow down in those final seconds, and then they’ll hit the water cleanly, like a high diver.”
In the four-second fall from the bridge, survivors say, time does seem to slow. On her way down in 1979, Ann McGuire said to herself, “I must be about to hit,” three times. But the impact is not clean: the coroner’s usual verdict, suicide caused by “multiple blunt-force injuries,” euphemizes the devastation. Many people don’t look down first, and so those who jump from the north end of the bridge hit the land instead of the water they saw farther out. Jumpers who hit the water do so at about seventy-five miles an hour and with a force of fifteen thousand pounds per square inch. Eighty-five per cent of them suffer broken ribs, which rip inward and tear through the spleen, the lungs, and the heart. Vertebrae snap, and the liver often ruptures. “It’s as if someone took an eggbeater to the organs of the body and ground everything up,” Ron Wilton, a Coast Guard officer, once observed.
Those who survive the impact usually die soon afterward. If they go straight in, they plunge so deeply into the water—which reaches a depth of three hundred and fifty feet—that they drown. (The rare survivors always hit feet first, and at a slight angle.)
BTW i want to apologize for the snarkiness of the last sentence of my last post. I realize this is a serious issue, and I also realize that many suicides are impulsive and believe that a clear demonstration of the horrible reality of this form of self-destruction might break the delusion of some people in the throes of depression.
Comment by Alex Chaffee — August 2, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
I was acquainted with one of the survivors. He was a swimmer and surfer so after he hit the water and came up alive his natural reaction was to swim to shore.
When they interviewed them after he said he wasn’t sure why he did it. He just handed his jacket to a bystander and said “give this to my mother”.
The word is that if you want to make sure you do yourself in you should jump onto the land. It is only a few feet less of a fall, but it is a lot harder.
Comment by Jack — August 11, 2009 @ 12:24 am
wow, I guess the middle takes the cake. I would have never guessed such a thing exists! interesting….
Comment by Mecca — August 14, 2009 @ 3:12 am
@#53- Pedestrians are only allowed on the east sidewalk, never on the west sidewalk.
http://goldengatebridge.org/bikesbridge/bikes.php
@#37- Don’t know when that was, but with recent “security concerns,” they monitor the sidewalks by closed circuit camera and yell via loudspeaker at those on the incorrect sidewalk
Comment by Austin — August 14, 2009 @ 6:21 am
Fenerbahce Taraftar Site
Comment by TrakyaFB — August 21, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
Definitely read that excellent New Yorker article.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fa_fact?currentPage=all
Comment by Harry Q. Hammer — September 7, 2009 @ 12:01 am
I was in San Francisco this past weekend. Went to the Golden Gate bridge on Sunday morning, my last chance to see it before my flight the next day. As I stared out at the beautiful view I looked down, but I wasn’t over the water yet, there was mud, and a yellow plastic sheet on the ground. As I stared, not even trying to figure out what it was, I noticed two feet sticking out from under it. And the man standing next to it, was a cop. I was in shock, a dead human being, just lying there. The place was full of tourists and no one had noticed it, no one was talking about it. Only I was unfortunate enough to notice. I hadn’t even crossed the bridge, and already my joy flushed away from me and I was so sad; depressed. Sad for this poor soul, who may have regretted what they did after it was too late. Who knows what their reasons were, how they felt, when they did it. Please, don’t anyone jump off this bridge or any bridge, don’t end your life. People do care, you just have to have hope and find us who care. There is hope, you are not alone, people all over the world have those kinds of thoughts just like you but they’ve seeked help and found it and are happy now. The world is not better off without you. Total strangers like me care. I didn’t know this person and knowing they are gone affects me deeply, it saddens me. I only wish I had been there at the time before that person jumped on Sunday so I could’ve stopped them, smiled, held out my hand to them.
Once you jump, there’s no turning back, if you regret it, it’s too late. Please re-consider. ;) I truly love you all! :)
Comment by ILoveYouAll — October 21, 2009 @ 3:39 am
Next time I visit the bridge, I know what I will be thing about! Crazy little blog ya got here.
Comment by Atlanta Roofing Company — November 12, 2009 @ 12:45 pm