What the Golden Gate Bridge’s anti-suicide net is teaching the rest of the nation

The elegant span that draws visitors from all over the world is no longer a destination for death.

Since completion of a steel net under the Golden Gate Bridge in January, reported suicides are down more than 80%, from an average of 15 to 20 in a six-month period to three, according to newly released data. Suicide attempts also have declined, from about 150 over six months to 56 through June, a more than 60% decrease.

The once-controversial $224 million project is now a case study in suicide prevention, lending its lessons to other barrier-building campaigns around the United States, Canada and England.

RELATED: Golden Gate Bridge suicides drastically decline after barrier installation

“We’re expanding, not disbanding,” said Paul Muller, president and co-founder of the Bridge Rail Foundation, created in 2006 with a mission of ending suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge.

“We’re sharing our stories with communities that are facing a similar problem,”  said Muller, advising others on how to obtain funding, navigate government bureaucracies, gain regulatory approval and develop a public campaign through community organizing. Families play an essential role, he said, reminding officials of their tremendous losses.

About 2,000 people are known to have died by jumping off the bridge, although the true tally is likely higher.

On the outskirts of Nashville, Trish Merelo and other survivors of suicide loss sought to build a barrier at the Natchez Trace Bridge, but layers upon layers of bureaucratic tape in Tennessee seemed to halt their mission at every step.

When she discovered the Bridge Rail Foundation, “It was like a lifeline,” she said. “Their success, on the granddaddy of all bridges, was such a sign of hope for the rest of us.”

The advice of the Bay Area group helped the Tennessee coalition build a strategy, she said, leading to last year’s construction of protective fencing on the 155-foot high concrete arch bridge that crosses a roadway and wooded valley, where 42 have ended their lives since 2000.

At the Coronado Bridge in San Diego, where more than 400 people have ended their lives, the Bridge Rail Foundation’s wisdom “has been integral to helping us get things done down here,” said Rhonda Haiston, co-founder of the Coronado San Diego Bridge Collaborative for Suicide Prevention. Funding is now authorized to install cables and netting, with construction starting in 2027.

In Palo Alto, where clusters of teens took their own lives during the 2008-09 and 2014-15 school years on the Caltrain tracks that traverse the city, the partnership of the Bridge Rail Foundation “has been crucial … recommending best practices, sharing advocacy strategies, suggesting funding sources for our fencing and other safety measures.” said Stanford University psychiatry professor Dr. Shashank Joshi, a leader in Project Safety Net, a community coalition to boost youth mental health.

Calls for help have also come in from Rhode Island, Wisconsin. Minnesota, Colorado, Massachusetts, Canada and England, said Muller.

The Golden Gate Bridge was once one of the world’s leading suicide destinations. When the bridge was built in 1937, chief engineer Joseph Strauss was convinced that none would end their lives on the bridge. Its railings and security system would make suicides impossible, he said.

Within three months, despondent World War I veteran Harold Wobber leaped to his death, proving Strauss wrong.

Other deaths included Roy Raymond, the founder of Victoria’s Secret; the eldest son of former journalist, White House aide and California U.S. Sen. Pierre Salinger; and a Fremont man distraught over a breakup with his wife, who threw his 3-year-old daughter over the side, then followed her down.

For decades, decision-makers argued over the effectiveness, aesthetics, practicality and cost of erecting a barrier on the iconic bridge, famed for its orange-red color and ethereal fog.

Opponents argued that people intent on ending their lives would simply find another way. But research by UC Berkeley professor Richard Seiden found that 94% of people who had been persuaded not to jump were still alive or had died of natural causes.

They worried that the bridge would lose its famed beauty. In response, the nets were suspended about 20 feet below the span. Blending into the steelwork, the nets are nearly invisible from a distance.