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September 7, 2008 5:54:42 AM CDT

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Golden Gate Considers a Fence

Posted Mar 3, 08 10:00 AM CST in Science & Health,  US 

(Newser) – San Francisco may finally be coming to grips with its Golden Gate suicide instrument, from which more than 1,300 people have thrown themselves, reports the Washington Post, making it America’s No. 1 self-annihilation destination. But for years the bridge’s guardians have resisted calls to erect a barrier, believing that thwarted suicides will just kill themselves elsewhere—despite a mountain of scientific evidence to the contrary.

A 1973 study, for example, tracked 515 people who had been prevented from jumping, and found that 94% were still alive. But evidence like that hadn’t moved the agency managing the bridge, until negative publicity began piling up—in 2006, for example, a documentary called “The Bridge” trained its camera on the landmark, and recorded the deaths of dozens.

Source Washington Post

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Coast Guard seaman apprentice Clayton Hesketh, of San Diego, California, patrols the security zone near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.   (KRT Photos)
A closed Baker Beach is shown with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background in San Francisco, Tuesday, Nov. 13., 2007. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)   (Associated Press)
Smoke from forest fires burning 200 miles away casts a haze over the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline in this view from the headlands above Sausalito, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007....   (Associated Press)
San Francisco, USA: Golden Bridge.   (Magnum Photos)
The Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.   (Magnum Photos)
Severe Storm Hits Northern California   (Getty Images)
Fireworks light up Golden Gate Bridge on Independence Day   (Getty Images)
San Francisco May Harness Wave Energy For Electricity   (Getty Images)
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