An Historic Day: Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Barrier received funding Package

This is off topic for this blog but it’s personal to me because this is about the “scene of the crime” of Casey’s suicide. Late last Month, the Golden Gate Bridge board of directors unanimously approved a $76 million funding package of local, state and federal dollars for the long-sought GGB suicide barrier. Cheers and tears all around at the board meeting. Call me cynical. This is an important milestone but I’ve watched this movie before. We had cheers and tears nearly six years ago when the GGB board voted to approve the net concept, but with no money.

So why am I cynical? In my testimony to the GGB board I noted that construction projects are notorious for delays. They estimate 2-3 years. My money’s on at least 5 years. Just look at other construction projects in the Bay Area alone – the Bay Bridge retrofit, Doyle Drive, the GGB median barrier. So could we please at least string a mesh underneath – as was done in the 1930s when the bridge was built saving the lives of a number of workers – so that more people don’t die during this next phase. A cruel irony to say the least.

Nonetheless this is not to take away from how far we’ve come, considering the pushback and downright ugliness we endured 6 years ago and well before that. 

Written By John Brooks

An Historic Day was originally published @ Parenting and Attachment and has been syndicated with permission.