The Golden Gate Bridge, completed after more than four years of construction at a cost of $35 million, is a visitor attraction recognized around the world. The GGB opened to vehicular traffic on May 28, 1937 at twelve o’clock noon, ahead of schedule and under budget, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in the White House announcing the event.
Rare Fact
In 2008, 34 people were known to have killed themselves by jumping off the stunningly beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. Last year the number was 31. Since its opening in 1937, at least 1300 people have committed suicide from its span, an average of 1 per month.
The bridge is the most popular place in the world to kill yourself. The 245 foot fall takes 4 seconds to complete and you hit the 48 degree wall of water at 76 mph. You have at least
a 98% chance of successfully dying.
Driven largely by a group of local psychotherapists --a suspect demographic-- the bridge governors voted last year to put up a plastic-coated steel net underneath to catch jumpers.
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