site map ►feel suicidal?
bottom of page • contact

the golden gate bridge

san francisco, california
the #1 suicide draw in the usa, #2 in the world.
updated: 11.06.23

ggb jump reports: 1937-1999 • 2000-
the ggb jumper barrier

'the bridge'
a documentary about
'golden gate' bridge suicide jumpers.
•

watch the full length movie

94 minutes • free
this movie is offsite and
could disappear again without notice.

a synopsis from the independent film channel: Inspired by a New Yorker story, "Jumpers", written by Tad Friend, director Eric Steel decided to train cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge over the course of 2004 to capture the people who attempted to leap off the famed structure, the site of more suicides than anywhere else in the world. He also tracked down and interviewed the friends, family members, and eyewitnesses to further recreate the events leading up to the incident and to try to explain what led these people to want to kill themselves, especially at this specific site. The documentary's primary subjects all struggled with mental illness, including severe depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders, and the documentary struggles to understand their illness while illuminating the anger and hurt of their loved ones. Most questions remain unanswered, turning on the darker recesses of the mind. The shots of the bridge wreathed in fog turn the Golden Gate into a metaphor for a bridge between life and death, sanity and mental disturbance, and extreme isolation and connection with society. Though the camera crew worked with a set of guidelines, including that they would call in someone they thought was going to jump, the documentary still includes lengthy footage of the moments leading up to and including the suicides, so discretion is advised for sensitive viewers.

review: dvdtalk.com

'the bridge' movie website • 'internet movie database'

buy from amazon.com

abc news 20/20: The Bridge of Death

book: The Final Leap: Suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge

'the bridge' - director eric steel interview, part 1 - 6 minutes.

'the bridge' - director eric steel interview, part 2 - about 6 minutes.

12.09.15: I Jumped Off The Golden Gate Bridge
10.31.13, wlox.com, Golden Gate Bridge jump survivor talks about mental illness

01.19.05, sfgate.com, Film captures suicides on Golden Gate Bridge / Angry officials say moviemaker misled them,
Golden Gate Bridge officials are seething that a moviemaker who told them he was working on a "day in the life" project about the landmark was, in fact, capturing people on film as they jumped to their deaths.
Eric Steel initially told officials he planned to spend a year filming the "powerful and spectacular interaction between the monument and nature" and that his work was to be the first in a series of documentaries about national monuments such as the St. Louis Arch and the Statue of Liberty. That's how he got the Golden Gate National Recreation Area's permission to set up cameras on parkland overlooking Fort Point.
Now, however, Steel has revealed in an e-mail to bridge officials that the cameras -- which were operating almost continuously during daylight hours for all of 2004 -- filmed most of the 19 jumpers who went off the bridge last year plus a number of attempted suicides.
Apparently, that was the point all along. Steel says his goal is to "allow us to see into the most impenetrable corners of the human mind and challenge us to think and talk about suicide in profoundly different ways."
"Are we angry? Absolutely," said bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie.
"A guy this duplicitous -- there must be a way to yank that stuff away from him," said Marin County Supervisor Hal Brown, a member of the bridge district's board. "It's just a horrible thing to be taking pictures of."
"It's creepy," agreed San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, also a member of the district board. "Whatever the intention of the film, you can't help but think of a snuff film."
Golden Gate National Recreation Area spokesman Rich Weideman, whose agency issued the permit for Steel to set up his cameras, said officials "would likely have taken a second and stronger look" if they'd known the filmmaker's true intent.
Still, Weideman said, free-speech guidelines don't leave a lot of room for federal officials to question content.
Bridge district officials, who had nothing to do with issuing the permit, already were suspicious before Steel broke the news.
"He had all this sophisticated equipment, and it was all focused mid span, so it was pretty clear what he was really up to," said one bridge worker who visited the camera site and asked not to be named.
Then last week came the e-mail from Steel telling bridge officials what the movie was really about and asking permission to interview bridge workers and brass about the suicides.
"My crew and I spent an entire year looking very carefully at the Golden Gate Bridge, running cameras for almost every daylight minute," Steel wrote. "We observed and filmed most of the two dozen or so suicides and a great many of the unrealized attempts.
"I'm not sure if you are aware of this," he added, "but on several occasions during the year, my crew and I were the first callers to the bridge patrol offices when we saw these events begin to unfold."
Steel also flew around the country logging nearly a hundred hours of interviews with jumpers' families, friends, witnesses, medical and psychiatric professionals and several attempted jumpers.
"It is a movie about the human spirit in crisis. It is a movie about people," Steel wrote.
"My intent is to make an independent, feature-length film that I can show at a major film festival," he added. "Beyond that, I have no distribution plans -- only hopes."
Marin County Supervisor and bridge board member Cynthia Murray said it is both fascinating and tragic that the bridge continues to be a magnet for suicides, and she worries about the effects Steel's movie might have.
"This could unfortunately add to people's interest to use the bridge as a final step," she said. "It seems the more you talk about this, the more there's a chance of copycat (suicides), and that would be extremely unfortunate if that was the case with this movie."
Both Murray and Ammiano said they favor taking another look at installing a suicide barrier.
Steel declined Tuesday to talk about the film or his tactics, saying he was in the middle of negotiations with bridge authorities for their cooperation.
Suffice it to say that at this point, officials don't appear to be ready for their close-ups -- especially now that they feel that Steel misrepresented what he was doing.
Still, "we are a public facility," bridge spokeswoman Currie said. "So his request will be handled accordingly. But now there's the question of what else might he be misrepresenting."
"What else did he film?" added board member Brown. "The underside of the bridge? The security patrols?"

comments

09.03.17, Faustus, Fla, USA, Watched it over and over again. Don't understand why.

08.24.08, Kate, A close family friend of mine committed suicide almost four years ago now jumping off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. This was a brilliant, talented, beautiful person who lived in our home for a time, who was like a member of our family, and who struggled for her entire life with crippling depression. I have heard about this movie, and I don't think I'll be able to see it; I have to drive over that bridge every few months, and I still am overcome with grief and anxiety every time I cross it. But I applaud your critique of the reviews. Because even though I probably won't see the movie, I think it's thought-provoking and important. Even if the filmmaker's thesis is flawed, if he is coming at it from a good place then it has some worth. (comment lifted from tomatonation.com, a worthy read about 'the bridge' movie.)

02.05.08, jess, what an amazing documentary last night... made my stomach cringe a few times... especially the last guy to go over... he didnt seem like he really WANTED to do it... he was up there for quite a while contemplating... you could even see him getting angry with himself a few times and stepping back... he couldnt even face toward the water when he finally did do it... then there was the old guy who was having so much trouble just getting over the rail, and he kinda just rolled over the edge... so sad... and the interview with the kid that survived.. WOW... could you imagine how many MORE suicides we would have off the skyway if they allowed you to walk across like they do the goldengate?! (comment lifted from myspace.)

. .

10.03.16: Texting Offers New Lifeline To Prevent Suicides

10.03.16, npr.org, Sitting next to the living room sofa, fully charged, is the cell phone that belonged to Kimberlyrenee and Manuel Gamboa's son, Kyle.
"We've kept it on and I just think his friends, it helps," Kimberlyrenee says. "Well it helps us to heal and I think it helps his friends to heal."
So they can see whenever one of Kyle's friends sends a text.
"Yeah, and here's another one that says, 'Love you brother, I really don't know what happened. I miss you, I wish you were here.' And that was June 2," she says.
It's been three years since the 18-year-old high school senior skipped school, drove to the Golden Gate Bridge and jumped.
New prevention strategy
The number of people younger than 25 showing up at the bridge intending to commit suicide is five times what it was in 2000, according to officials. On average, two to three people jump each month. Bridge and California Highway Patrol officers stop most of them, but they still need more help.
Each time the Bridge Board holds a public meeting, the Gamboas show up to demand the board install a suicide net — a big, expensive project that keeps getting delayed.
But, at a recent meeting, the Gamboas learned of the bridge's new prevention strategy: the crisis text hotline.
"I'm all for it," Manuel says.
It's not the the ultimate solution, he says, but Manuel does believe that text messaging is a very big part of the young community. So now there are signs on the bridge urging anyone considering suicide to text the number 741741.
Texting is easier
In the dining room of her San Francisco apartment, Ellen Kaster is answering texts to the hotline, which come in from all over the the country. She's a volunteer with the suicide prevention network called Crisis Text Line.
"Right now I have a texter who has struggled with drug addiction and has gone through phases of being clean and relapsing," she says.
The texter tells Kaster he feels suicidal. This is a code orange, which means her supervisor — a social worker — has now joined in to monitor the conversation. They'll call police if the suicide threats intensify.
Kaster says for many, texting these emotional conversations is easier.
"It can feel very vulnerable, especially for the younger generation, to actually dial a real phone and talk to somebody, so there's something very impersonal about text that's very natural," she explains.
'Just give tomorrow a chance'
When a suicide threat is texted from the Golden Gate Bridge, the hotline counselors contact the bridge patrol. That team, which is constantly on the lookout for people who might be suicidal, is led by Capt. Lisa Locati.
"The ages here are just startling — 16, 22, 25," she says.
In the bridge command center, Locati thumbs through a binder full of printed Facebook pages. These are people whose loved ones have called in, worried they might jump.
What really bothers Locati is how many are just kids who don't have much perspective on life.
"They got a bad grade in class, broke up with their boyfriend or girlfriend," she says. "There's a lot of bullying going on in the age group."
Locati says that can be devastating to some young people.
"You want so much to make the connection and convince this person that dying is not the answer, at least today," she says. "Just give tomorrow a chance. So, yeah, it's very exhausting.
Reach out, someone will answer
At the Gamboas' home Kimberlyrenee says she doesn't know whether her son Kyle would have reached out to the textline. But he was on his phone that morning.
"And his last contact was on Facebook, and he texted," she says.
She hopes if Kyle's friends will reach out to a phone he hasn't answered in three years, maybe kids on the bridge will text for help, and someone will answer.

jumpers by year • full size