Iconic Golden Gate Bridge to Get $45M Suicide Net

(July 29) -- San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge has been attracting tourists and enthusiastic locals for more than 70 years. But it's also been a tragic lure for suicides, with dozens of people dying each year by jumping more than 200 feet into the water below.

Now that's going to change.

The city's Metropolitan Transportation Commission has approved $5 million for the design of a suicide barrier. It will take the form of a giant steel net hanging 20 feet below the bridge to catch the jumpers, The New York Times reported. A "cherry picker" truck would then be used to rescue the would-be suicides.

Waves crash against rocks at Fort Point near the Golden Gate Bridge on Oct. 10, 2008, in San Francisco.

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

San Francisco plans to hang an anti-suicide net beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, but it is at least three years off.

"This is very much overdue," Eve Meyer, executive director of San Francisco Suicide Prevention, told AOL News. She said the bridge has long attracted suicides "because the means are so accessible."

It will be at least three years before the net is in place. It's not cheap, either. The final price tag will be a hefty $45 million.

There is no clear count of how many people have died by jumping from the bridge, which opened in 1937. The Times reports an official estimate of 1,300; Meyer says the figure is likely more than 2,000.

A documentary film called "The Bridge" brought the Golden Gate Bridge suicide problem to public attention, showing almost two dozen people leaping to their deaths in 2004. This added to the ammunition of those campaigning for a barrier, a fight that has been taking place for decades.

The city has also attempted other methods to stop the suicides. The bridge has 13 call boxes labeled "crisis counseling," and trained workers patrol the bridge on foot and on bicycles to watch out for suicidal behavior.

"If a person is alone and doesn't have a camera, that's the most obvious [sign]," Mary Currie, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, told AOL News.

Adding a barrier to the bridge isn't as easy as it may sound. Any plan had to be approved from an aesthetic perspective and not have a major impact on wildlife such as birds. Plus, no money raised from the bridge's tolls could be put toward the $45 million needed.

Still, despite the challenges, a barrier is worth it to help stop "the most preventable suicides," Meyer told AOL News.

She believes the bridge's reputation as a suicide hot spot actually encouraged people to kill themselves on impulse, since it was famous and easily accessible.

"It became a legend," Meyer told AOL News. "[Survivors] say they wanted to be part of the legend."