Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier closes in on approval 
 
 A rendering shows how the proposed suicide barrier, a net 20 feet beneath the east side of the span, would look. A net would also be placed under the bridge's western, ocean-facing side. A rendering shows how the proposed suicide barrier, a net 20 feet beneath the east side of the span, would look. A net would also be placed under the bridge's western, ocean-facing side. Photo: Golden Gate Bridge District, Courtesy To The Chronicle Photo: Golden Gate Bridge District, Courtesy To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier closes in on approval 1 / 10 Back to Gallery 
 
 Golden Gate Bridge directors, in an effort to end the world-famous span's allure as a suicide destination, are expected Friday to approve spending $20 million to hang a net beneath the landmark structure. 
 
 It's part of a $76 million funding plan for what the district calls "a physical suicide deterrent system" that also includes money from the state and federal governments. 
 
 Bridge officials, who had vowed not to spend toll money on the steel-cable net, are nonetheless expected to vote for contributing $20 million in reserves and approving the funding package. Their action would allow the district to proceed with building and installing the net on both sides of the bridge, a project expected to take about three years. 
 
 It's been 77 years since the bridge opened, and during that time an estimated 1,600 people have jumped to their deaths. Last year, 46 people committed suicide at the bridge, and 100 were stopped by bridge workers or police. 
 
 "By approving this, we are putting a stop to 77 years of needless death and family devastation," Kevin Hines said at the bridge Thursday. Hines survived a suicide attempt at the bridge in 2001 at age 19 and has since worked to get a barrier installed. 
 
 There have been intermittent calls for some kind of suicide barrier for decades, usually from mental health agencies and the families of jumpers. In 1954, the first plan suggested installation of a barbed-wire fence along the bridge's rails. In recent years, support for a suicide barrier has gained support. 
 
 Several funding sources 
 
 In 2008, the bridge board voted to hang a net to deter possible jumpers, or catch those who do jump. It chose that design over others that proposed erecting 10- to 12-foot barriers at the bridge's edges. Two years later, directors approved environmental studies on the net, and in 2011, they contracted for the net's design. Since then, they've tried to find funding for the net without using toll revenues. 
 
 A little less than two years ago, the district began to piece together the financial puzzle. Federal law changed to allow transportation funds to be used for safety projects, including nets and barriers. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission agreed to contribute $27 million in federal money, and Caltrans added $22 million in highway funds. 
 
 Since federal funding requires a local contribution, bridge officials proposed contributing $20 million from the district's reserves. Denis Mulligan,the district's general manager, said that in addition to attracting federal funds and saving lives, the district will reduce the financial and emotional costs of having bridge workers deal with jumpers. 
 
 The final $7 million was included in the recently adopted state budget. State Sen. Mark Leno, a former bridge district director, said that after he learned the funding package was coming together, he asked State Sen. President ProTem Darrell Steinberg to help obtain state money from Prop. 63, which taxed millionaires to fund mental-health programs. Steinbergagreed. 
 
 'Let's make the net real' 
 
 Steinberg, Leno, Hines, bridge officials and other barrier supporters gathered Thursday at the south end of the bridge, near a statue of Joseph Strauss, the structure's chief engineer, to explain and praise the news that funding has finally been pieced together. 
 
 "This bridge is a symbol of beauty and grace and should no longer be associated with suicide, should no longer be associated with untimely death," Steinberg said. 
 
 Hines, who said he felt regret the moment his fingers let go of the bridge railing, dismissed the argument that suicidal people will merely find another place or way to take their lives. So did Dr. David Pating, psychiatrist and vice chairman of the state's Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. 
 
 "Suicide is an attempt to cope with unbearable pain, usually emotional in nature," he said. "This pain is cyclical and time-limited. ... We know that if the person can be prevented from dying, the pain can be treated or will recede on its own." 
 
 While the funding plan appears headed for approval, Hines urged to board to move forward. 
 
 "I am hopeful that the decision made here tomorrow will not only make history but will mean that not one more soul will be lost to that bridge, and not another family will be left with a dark abyss of eternal pain," he said. "Let's make the net real." ||||| Story highlights Board of directors approves plan to erect suicide barrier on Golden Gate Bridge 
 
 Golden Gate Bridge is the most-used suicide spot in the United States 
 
 Last year, 46 people died jumping off the bridge 
 
 There is a dark duality about the Golden Gate Bridge. Majestic and macabre, the bridge is an architectural wonder that also happens to be a magnet for suicides. 
 
 It is the most-used suicide spot in the United States, second in the world. 
 
 "People come from all over the world to go onto this bridge," said Sergeant Kevin Briggs, a retired police officer who used to patrol the Golden Gate. "Not just to sight-see, but also to take their life." 
 
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 On Friday, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge Board of Directors unanimously approved $76 million in funding to erect a 20-foot-wide steel net -- extending out from each side of the 1.7-mile span -- to deter would-be jumpers. The federal government will cover $50 million of the cost; the rest will come from state and local sources. 
 
 Last year, 46 people died after jumping off the Golden Gate, according to the Bridge Rail Foundation , an organization dedicated to stopping suicides from the bridge. The organization estimates that more than 1,600 people have leapt to their deaths since the bridge opened in 1937. 
 
 "Where nets have been erected as suicide barriers they've proven to be 100% effective thus far," said Denis Mulligan, CEO and general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, which presented the proposal to the board. "Suicidal people have stopped jumping at those locations." 
 
 Those locations include the Clifton Suspension Bridge in England and the Duke Ellington Bridge in Washington, where, after barriers were installed, suicide rates went down dramatically. 
 
 "Apparently, suicidal individuals don't want to hurt themselves, they want to die," said Mulligan. "So where nets have been erected, people stop jumping." 
 
 The decision to move forward with the Golden Gate plan punctuates a contentious fight that has simmered here for decades. 
 
 On one side of the debate were those who believe a suicide barrier will detract from the bridge's beauty. On the other side were mental health and other advocates, some of whom bore an intimate sense of the potential benefits of such a barrier. 
 
 One of the barrier proponents is Kevin Berthia. He stood on the precipice of the Golden Gate Bridge on a cold afternoon in March 2005. He was unemployed, drowning in a sea of medical bills, and distraught. 
 
 "I was hurting a lot," said Berthia. "I was dealing with a lot of issues, and I felt like I was dealing with them by myself." 
 
 Almost as soon as he hopped over the 4-foot barrier (which many argued makes jumping too easy) to the bridge's outer railing, he was approached by Sergeant Briggs. 
 
 Briggs had been there before. During his 23-year career, he coaxed more than 200 people back from that same railing. Two people he wasn't able to save. 
 
 An artist's rendering from the proposal shows the orange barrier extending from the structure below deck. 
 
 "When someone goes over on the other side of that rail, it's like having a gun to their head, their finger on the trigger, and the hammer pulled back," said Briggs, founder of Pivotal Points , a crisis management and suicide prevention organization. 
 
 "They're ready to go. The pain is great -- they see no hope." 
 
 For more than 90 minutes, Briggs listened while Berthia talked, the biting wind swirling around them. As the minutes passed, Berthia says the burdens he was carrying slowly lifted. 
 
 Eventually he decided to come back over the barrier. 
 
 "I knew things would get 10 times worse when I came back over, but I wanted to give it another shot," said Berthia, who says it took another eight years to get help for his mental health problems. 
 
 Opposition faded 
 
 A few years ago, the transportation district invited public comment about installing a suicide barrier, said Mulligan, the transportation district head, and opinion was deeply divided. 
 
 "Leave the bridge alone," one commenter posted. "It's not the bridge's fault people choose to commit suicide there." 
 
 Another commenter echoed a common perception about how effective a barrier could be: "Sadly, desperate people do commit suicide and they will find another means to do it if the GG bridge is not available to them." 
 
 An artist's rendering from the proposal shows a horizontal barrier that extends from the deck, beneath the roadway, and doesn't clash with the bridge's unique International Orange hue. 
 
 Berthia said a suicide net certainly would have discouraged him from considering jumping, that his attraction to the bridge was the ease with which he could perish. 
 
 Very rarely do people who are stopped from jumping go on to commit suicide, according to a study published in 1978 by Richard Seiden, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. 
 
 More than 90% of would-be jumpers who were stopped, according to the oft-cited study, were still alive decades later. 
 
 Berthia and Briggs say the decision to fund a barrier is overdue. 
 
 "It should have been there a long time ago," said Berthia. "A lot of lives could have been saved." 
 
 Briggs says that the father of a young man who died after jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge summed it up potently for him. 
 
 "A view or a life? A view or a life?" said Briggs, paraphrasing the father. Those few words were what he says convinced him that something needed to be done. 
 
 When asked about advocates' argument that lives have been lost needlessly during the years the transportation group assembled its plan, Mulligan said, "With the passage of time I think society's values and understanding of suicide has evolved, and so has our board's." 
 
 It will be several years before the net is built, said Mulligan. Still, a plan in motion -- even if it takes some time -- is of great solace to advocates. 
 
 "(It has been) 77 years of needless deaths and survivor family devastation," Kevin Hines, one of the rare people who survived a suicide attempt from the bridge, said before the board's vote. 
 
 He said the move toward a safety barrier means the community at last is "placing higher value and worth on people's lives over a piece of bright red iron." ||||| Golden Gate Bridge officials have approved a plan for a suicide barrier on the iconic bridge. Mark Matthews reports. (Published Friday, June 27, 2014) 
 
 Golden Gate Bridge officials have approved a plan for a suicide barrier on the iconic bridge. 
 
 The 19-member board unanimously voted to approve funding for the project Friday morning. 
 
 In an emotion-filled board meeting, the directors approved spending $20 million for the $76 million project. The rest of the money will be covered by the state and federal government. 
 
 Construction on the proposed steel cable net system would is expected to be completed by 2018, with bidding on the job expected to begin next year. 
 
 Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Barrier Approved 
 
 Golden Gate Bridge officials have approved a plan for a suicide barrier on the iconic bridge. Peggy Bunker reports. (Published Friday, June 27, 2014) 
 
 Some people oppose the barrier, saying it will be unsightly, but officials say the barrier will not mar the landmark bridge's appearance. 
 
 District general manager Denis Mulligan said the bridge district staff's opinion is that "construction of the suicide deterrent simply is the right thing to do at this time." 
 
 $76M Suicide Barrier OK'd for Golden Gate 
 
 Golden Gate Bridge officials have approved a plan for a suicide barrier on the iconic bridge. Mark Matthews reports. (Published Friday, June 27, 2014) 
 
 The motion for Friday's vote came from board member and former bridge district director John Moylan, whose grandson, Sean Moylan, jumped off the bridge to his death earlier this month. 
 
 A tearful Dan Barks of Napa, who lost his son, Donovan, to suicide on the bridge in 2008, said after the vote that he was almost speechless. ``A lot of people have done so much incredible work to get this accomplished,'' he said. 
 
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 After the vote, he rose from his knees and shared a tearful embrace with Sue Story of Rocklin, whose son Jacob jumped off the bridge in 2010. 
 
 ``We did it, Dan! We did it! It's no longer the Bridge of Death anymore,'' she said. 
 
 More than a dozen family members of those who have taken their lives on the bridge spoke at the meeting, all with the same plea. 
 
 “My main thing for being here is to prevent future deaths, prevent future families from going through what we’re going through,” said Manuel Gamboa, whose son Kyle jumped to his death from the bridge last year. 
 
 At least some of the money still requires additional approval. The bridge's board, however, has now taken its final step in adopting the net. 
 
 The Golden Gate Bridge, with its sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, has long been a destination for people seeking to end their lives. Since it opened in 1937, more than 1,400 people have plunged to their deaths, including a record 46 suicides last year, officials said. 
 
 The bridge's board voted in 2008 to install a stainless steel net, rejecting other options, including raising the 4-foot-high railings and leaving the iconic span unchanged. Two years later, they certified the final environmental impact report for the net, which would stretch about 20 feet wide on each side of the span. 
 
 The funding plan includes $22 million of federal Local Highway Bridge Program money programmed by Caltrans, $27 million from federal Surface Transportation Program funds programmed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, $7 million from California Mental Health Service Act funds and $20 million from the district's reserves. 
 
 The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.
– Golden Gate Bridge directors today took a big step toward eliminating the span's unwanted distinction as the most popular spot in the nation for suicides, reports CNN. The board approved a $76 million project to install a steel safety net that will jut out from both sides of the bridge. It's expected to be in place in 2018, despite criticism that it will detract from the span's beauty, reports NBC Bay Area. Directors, though, have got about 1,600 arguments in their favor—the number of suicides since the bridge opened in 1937, including a record 46 last year. "By approving this, we are putting a stop to 77 years of needless death and family devastation," a jumper who survived his suicide attempt in 2001 tells the San Francisco Chronicle. One of this year's suicides was the grandson of a public official who has led the push for the safety net.