Hmmm, coincidence? They approve the Golden Gate Bridge barrier right after the Dow closes after its worst week ever.

Dow's shitty week: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/10/financial/f073834D46.DTL

GGB Barrier approval: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/10/BASH13F0MH.DTL&tsp=1

"The net, which is expected to cost $40 million to $50 million, was the least costly of five proposed suicide barriers, which included 10-to-12-foot vertical or horizontal barriers that would sit atop the existing 4-foot railings."

Really? Do we have that kind of money to be saving peoples lives who don't want to live anyway?

I'm moving to Mendocino. Fuck this shit.

Retarded, exactly.

@sharon now because that section of the bay has been converted into grape jell-o

This fucking net is only more of an encouragement for jolly times. "Hey lets jump onto the net, don't matter they'll come and get us later"

They could have just installed a fucking diving board, it would have been a whole hell of a lot cheaper, cause really this net is encouragement.

One commentor in the article asked "What's going to happen if the net does work? Injures someone or doesn't stop someone from offing their selves? The idiot could cry foul, or the deceased family would sue. 'WAHH THE BARRIER DIDN'T WORK ITS ALL YOUR FAULT WAHHH'

I guess it's a small deterrent. You have to work up the courage to jump once... maybe people are too pussy to do it twice.

How many people actually jump off the GG bridge anyway?

@johnny: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge#Suicides

"The count exceeded 1,200 in 2005, and new suicides were averaging one every two weeks.[39] For comparison, the reported second most popular place to commit suicide in the world, Aokigahara Forest in Japan, has a record of 78 bodies, found within the forest in 2002, with an average of 30 a year.[40] There were 34 bridge-jump suicides in 2006 whose bodies were recovered, in addition to four jumps that were witnessed but whose bodies were never recovered, and several bodies recovered suspected to be from bridge jumps. The California Highway Patrol removed 70 apparently suicidal people from the bridge that year.[41] A person jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge every 15 days.[citation needed] An additional 200 may be added to the suicide count on the bridge, because of fog, night-time jumpers, and other jumps that couldn't be counted.[citation needed]"

@johnny - there's already the movie about it. it's pretty sobering when you watch it though.

The movie is called The Bridge,and it's rather haunting. And yes, if you watch it you can see people jumping to their death (though nothing gory is shown). The reason I think a barrier is necessary is that most people who jump are in the midst of clinical depression, and when they recover they want to survive. For us to have the bridge unprotected is tantamount to leaving loaded guns around - it's just too easy and tempting. Let's make it harder for impulsive acts on public monuments, I say.