Aurora Bridge fence is nearly finished

More than 230 people have jumped to their deaths from the Aurora Bridge since it was built in 1932 — the most recent a woman who leapt last month from between gaps in the nearly completed barrier fence.

"It wasn't a surprise," state Department of Transportation spokesman Greg Phipps said of the woman's suicide. "Until there's no gap in the fence, there's always a chance that someone could attempt suicide on the bridge. It was disappointing, but not surprising."

The fence is scheduled to be completed by the end of the week; crews are working to fill in fewer than 45 remaining gaps along the western edge.

There have been fewer suicide attempts since construction began in June, Phipps said, and the gaps are a necessary part of the construction process. The gaps, about 8 to 10 feet wide, have been left unfilled for a variety of reasons. Primarily, that's where construction crews will move electrical lines or where the fence needs to be built with uncommonly sized pieces.

"You would sort of look at this and go, 'There are gaps in the bridge and it doesn't seem logical,' " Phipps said. "But it actually is completely logical."

After the gaps are filled to finish the fence, crews still face other related work, such as sign installation, which will take another week or two.

And people could continue to jump from the George Washington Memorial Bridge, as it is officially known.

The fence, which is about 9 feet tall, depending on the slope of the bridge, isn't insurmountable.

But Kathleen Southwick, the executive director of Crisis Clinic, a 24-hour crisis line, said that's not the point. Suicides are often an impulsive act, and the fence will give a person more time to reconsider and emergency crews more time to respond, she said.

Phipps said suicides on bridges are particularly impulsive because of the bridges' accessibility.

"What you're trying to do is create a sense that it's not easy," he said. "It's not just going out, walking on a bridge and hopping over the railing. It actually requires an effort."

What's more, people thwarted by the fence generally won't just go and find another bridge.

Seattle FRIENDS, a Fremont community group that lobbied for the fence's installation, noted that when a barrier was built on a bridge in Washington, D.C., suicides at another bridge a block away did not increase.

Southwick said grass-roots groups like Seattle FRIENDS (for FRemont Individuals & Employees Nonprofit to Decrease Suicides) deserve credit for the Aurora Bridge fence. The group is composed of people who live and work in the community below the bridge.

"They were the ones who saw people going off and landing in the parking lots there," Southwick said. "They were the ones who really brought it to the government's attention."

The bridge, 2,945 feet long and 167 feet above Lake Union, has the second-highest rate for bridge suicides in the nation, behind San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The fence was authorized by the state Legislature and approved by the city's Landmark Preservation Board, as the bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Phipps said the fence, composed of vertical steel rods spaced about 5 inches apart, was designed to create a minimal visual impact. Still, he regularly receives e-mails from community members concerned about the project, including its aesthetic appeal.

Others alert him to recent incidents and ask about the fence's completion date.

"Almost everyone who lives near the bridge has witnessed this on multiple occasions," he said. "For a lot of those people, the fence couldn't come sooner."

Information from The Seattle Times' archives was included in this report.

Olivia Bobrowsky: 206-464-3195 or obobrowsky@seattletimes.com

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the woman who jumped from the Aurora Bridge last month was a teenager. She was 25 years old.