The Final Leap Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the appendices. From the early studies of sociologist Emile Durkheim, who theorized that suicide is caused by social factors such as isolation and lack of connectedness, to psychologist Edwin Shneidman, the father of suicidology, who coined the phrase “psychache” to describe the emotional pain that drives people to take their lives, to psychiatrist Aaron Beck’s research on hopelessness and psychologist Thomas Joiner’s current studies in which desire and capacity are key elements, the thinking about suicide has changed over the years. We know now that 90 percent of people who die by suicide are clinically depressed, and their actions may be further influenced by drugs or alcohol. Yet many people who suffer from depression never make an attempt. Some researchers believe that suicidal behavior is linked to physiological or genetic factors, but so far this has not been proven conclusively. What has been proven is that most people fixate on one means of death. Eliminate access to that means—whether it’s a safety lock on firearms, a blister tab on medications, or a barrier on a bridge—and suicides are reduced.
    The appendices also include numbers to call for help and information if you or someone you know is feeling suicidal, as well as the most complete listing to date of people who have killed themselves by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. The latter has a table with a year-by-year count of known suicides from the bridge. The total, midway through 2011 is 1,575. The actual number, as noted earlier, is certainly higher.
    The Golden Gate Bridge is beautiful, but not to everyone. It’s not beautiful to families and friends who have lost loved ones. While others celebrate the splendor, grace, and technological triumph of the bridge, they’re reminded of a deep, never-ending hurt. With each new viewing of the span, whether in person, in a movie, in a company logo, or on an article of clothing, the wound is reopened. Few other death scenes embody so much emotion for so many people.
    The bridge isn’t beautiful to people who are unfortunate enough to witness a jump. Whether that person is a pedestrian on the bridge, a motorist driving by, a sailor on the bay, or a bridge worker, seeing a person hurtle over the railing is traumatizing. You view the bridge differently after that. Beauty and death can’t be separated.
    The bridge isn’t beautiful to many police officers or Coast Guard personnel, either. It represents an unsavory part of their job, something they do only because there’s no one else to do it.
    This is the story of how one of the world’s most famous landmarks became the top destination of people wanting to die. It’s also the story of why, so far, the Golden Gate Bridge remains that way. If it takes you a week to read this book, and the Golden Gate Bridge still doesn’t have a suicide deterrent, odds are that another tortured soul will have jumped before you finish. And a whole new group of people will be left to mourn.
    One day steps will be taken so that suicides from the bridge end, just as they have ended on other famous monuments around the world. When that happens, lives will be saved. Unfortunately, that day isn’t here yet. As a result, the deaths continue—tragic, misunderstood, and totally preventable.

TWO
Fatal Decisions
The Golden Gate Bridge is practically suicide proof. Suicide from the bridge is neither possible nor probable.
    â€”Joseph Strauss, chief engineer,
  Golden Gate Bridge, 1936
    The issue of suicide has been inextricably linked with the Golden Gate Bridge since it was built. From the bridge’s inauguration in 1937 to the present, the dangers of this iconic landmark have been ignored, obscured, and dismissed by nearly everyone—especially public officials and the media. The dark underside of the bridge’s history offers testimony to its Janus-like appeal. While it is a monumental edifice, noted