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Ruining the view from Aurora Bridge

My bus crosses the Aurora Bridge with its wonderful public view of Mount Rainier, the city, the ship canal, the Olympics and Cascades. Since we’re destined to lose our grand aerial view from the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the pending loss of the view from the Aurora Bridge is even more aggravating.

Aurora Bridge lit up. Enhanced photo by Kenji Tachibana

Public viewscapes contribute immeasurably to our civic identity and urban well being. After a long day, the sunset view crossing the bridge is a mental tonic (without the gin!).  The wake up view of sunlight catching fresh snow on the Cascades beats a latte and a vitamin pill as the morning pick-me-up.  Our public viewpoints and corridors contribute to a healthy mental state of mind, as well as aesthetic outlook.  Yet we’re letting WSDOT steal that view, turning the historic structure into a long linear jail cell for the hundreds of thousands of us who use that corridor. How maddening.  Last year I attended the so-called outreach event following a daylong design charette to come up with concepts to suicide proof the bridge.  While the only solution I personally could abide was a simple net structure slung under the bridge, there were other more artful fence concepts presented. Instead we end up with the jail cell look.

So we’re spending $4.6 million, forcing residents of Fremont and Queen Anne to endure months of daytime irritation and sleepless nights while the construction crews drill and rivet and corrupt our bridge so we can possibly deter a small subset of suicide attempts.  But we’re not going to solve the problem of suicide this way and we’re not going to eliminate every hazard to our physical and mental health by such clumsy methods.  If the goal is to spend gas tax dollars to prevent loss of life, there are hundreds of unfunded highway safety projects, railroad grade separations, and drunken driving enforcement actions that would be more effective.

This entry was posted by Irene Wall on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 10:23 am and is filed under Architecture, Engineering, Government, Historic, Landmarks, Neighborhoods, Parks and open space, Planning, Politics, Preservation, Seattle lifestyle, transportation, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • http://seattletransitblog.com John Jensen

    Some points in this post are so over-the-top that they’re hard to take seriously. I mean: “endure months of daytime irritation and sleepless nights,” really?

  • http://hans.gerwitz.com/ Hans Gerwitz

    $4.6 million could, indeed, be better spent elsewhere to increase safety. But giving you one less reason to enjoy driving (and the views other than where you are aiming your vehicle) is a pretty good start.

  • Irene Wall

    John,
    According to WSDOT the project will not be completed until the winter of 2011. That’s many months. The noise of the rivet buster is so bad that WSDOT has this offer on their website:

    We can provide you with industrial strength earplugs, or white noise machines if construction noise is keeping you up at night. Call our 24 hour noise hotline: 206-440-4099 for more information.

    Sweet dreams!

    Hans,
    I guess that means passengers, and bus commuters should close their eyes while on the bridge so as not to be distracted by the view? And bike helmets should have blinders? Anti-auto sentiments confuse the issue, the view is for the people, not the car.

  • Dick Palatine

    People will find other ways of killing themselves. The trouble is you can not interview people who have killed themselves to get the data, “Would you have risked the bodily injury of climbing the fence to kill yourself.” How about making the 4.6M available for mental disorder treatment, or better still, low interest loans or grants so people do not get to that point to start with. Banning Microsoft docx software would save more lives.

  • Nate

    I grew up in Augusta, Maine, where a similar bridge got the suicide fence treatment, and everybody got up in arms, saying that the suicide jumpers would just go walk to one of the other bridges or find a different way. Statistics after the face DID NOT prove this to be true however.

    Evidently there can be significant impact in removing “popular” suicide spots as an option. Perhaps the act of suicide (as opposed to depression leading up to it) is more of a spontaneous impulse than we think.

  • Irene Wall

    A sinking feelling came over me as I waited on NB Aurora Ave on Wed. No emergency vehicles sirens could be heard. A jumper on the bridge must be the reason for this gridlock. Yesterday morning a Fremont blog confirmed the suspicion. Do I feel differently now about the fence? No. What prevented this suicide attempt was observant concerned citizens calling 911 and the skilled intervention by individuals trained to reach out and really help the potential victim. A fence will not do that. The fence is more about keeping traffic moving than helping a person with terrible thoughts of suicide.

  • Kila Morton

    I just came across this article as I was searching for more information on someone who recently jumped from this bridge. I have to say that I am absolutely appalled by your lack of empathy and common decency. I’m so sorry that you or some you know will feel some inconvenience over the noise of this fence being erected OR possibly have your view interrupted. You may not see yourself as self absorbed and uncaring, but that is exactly how you come across in this article.

    I understand it. The problem is that we have become too desensitized to death. We look at it only in dollars and cents. We don’t care. We don’t feel and we don’t think. It doesn’t matter to you that this fence will possibly deter someone from killing themselves. It doesn’t matter to you that some people who become overwhelmed and start to believe that killing themselves is the only way, might just stop and think about what they are doing because they can’t just hop over the side of this bridge anymore. Some of us have it all figured out. We are self confident, well prepared for life and unafraid to face the trials and tribulations that might come our way. Others aren’t as fortunate. They need some help – some guidance – and sometimes, a fence to help protect them from their own demons.

    The person I was looking for information on was a young woman who killed herself on this bridge. She was a transgender woman – a woman born as a man. I didn’t know her personally, but she worked for a company that I’m acquainted with. She was in her 20s. I don’t know her complete story, but when I heard about her death, I was instantly filled with sorrow. Here was this woman who was born a boy, but felt trapped inside of her own body. She made changes to make herself look like a girl, but people thought she was awkward in many ways. They didn’t know about her past, however, she did. She knew her own secrets and I can imagine that she lived a tortured existence because of the way people treated her and the way she felt about herself. She killed herself to escape – to find peace. She killed herself because she felt that her life, as she knew it, wasn’t worth living. Could she have turned her life around? It is possible, but we will never know. It is over for her and what she did can never be undone. She jumped from that bridge and did not survive.

    If this fence can stop even one person from making the same choice, then it is worth it. If even one person can be given a little more time to think things out and possibly be helped then it is worth it. If this fence can make even one person change his or her mind about suicide then it is worth it. Everyone doesn’t feel like they have the answers to the problems in their lives, but if this fence will give even one person one more day to figure it out then it is worth it. You can’t and shouldn’t put a price on a life. What would you want someone to give to help save your life if it ever came down to it? Are you more valuable than someone who wants to kill themselves because of their troubles? The answer is no you aren’t. We are all in this world together and we all have a responsibility to each other – whether we want to honor that responsibility or not. You need some compassion. You need to take your head out of the sand and recognize the fact that sometimes people’s lives aren’t what they want or need them to be and sometimes they CAN turn it around if they have the chance to. The problem is that those chances don’t always come BEFORE a person contemplates or attempts suicide.

    If you want an example of how people came come to a point where they want to end it all, all you have to do is look back at American history for examples of incidences that would cause a person to feel that way. I think about how it must have felt to be black during the time when black people could not go to the same schools as white people or drink from the same fountains or even eat at the same restaurants as white people. Think about how it must have felt to be marginalized like that – to know that people hate you just because you exist. Can you imagine such a thing? Hating someone just because they exist – not because they have done anything to you? Think about what that treatment does to a person’s mental well and physical well being. Now switch that up and substitute gay people for black people. Everyday you have people who condemn gay people, attack them and mistreat them. Yet those same people never stop to think about the effect they are having on other people’s lives. Now switch and substitute gay people for poor people – people who struggle with the basic necessities of life that people like me take for granted. Think about how it feels to sit and worry about how you are going to spread a small paycheck over a large amount of bills. Think about how overwhelming that might be for someone ill equipped to deal with those pressures. No switch that up and substitute in children that parents don’t want. Do you get my point? There are a LOT of screwed up people in this world and they are screwed up for a lot of different reasons.

    I hope you begin to realize that this fence is going to help someone. It might cause you a few sleepless nights, but it is going to give someone else a chance to make it and, perhaps, a chance to turn things around. I hope you start to see things beyond the scope of your narrow point of view and I hope you never know what it feels like to be depressed enough to want to end things. I hope you never know what it feels like to feel your world crashing down around you and feel like you have no control over what is happening to you.

    I personally have never and would never consider ending my life. I love my life too much and I love those who love me, but, I’m not naive enough to think that everyone has had the life I have had or has the love that I have. I hope that you realize one day that everyone is not as fortunate as you. It will go a long way in helping you gain some empathy.

  • Bereaved

    Last year, my best friend jumped off the Aurora Bridge. He didn’t appear severely depressed; no one would have guessed he wanted to commit suicide. My first words (more of a scream) were “WHY?” He acted on an panicky impulse and just did it.

    If you can prevent a person from acting on that impulse, anxiety and panic pass and logic may take over. People waver from one second to the next about committing suicide, so making it more difficult for people to kill themselves may just give them that second they need to change their minds. Once you’re over the rail there’s no turning back.

    People do crazy and stupid things. That’s why we have stair railings and elevator doors and warning labels. The more lethal the risk, the more important it is to take protective action. I wish as well as you do that everyone would be sensible and careful all the time. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with those pesky airport security checks and innumerable internet passwords. These things are in place because people are unpredictable. Perhaps you should accept reality, not ideals.

    Also, think before you devalue a “small subset of suicide attempts.” Every death is devastating. My life is forever changed. It doesn’t matter to me how many or few people die from it. ONE WAS TOO MANY. Meet some families of suicide victims and then try to maintain your position on the bridge.

    Or better yet, realize that this could happen to YOU. I never in my life thought it would happen to me.

  • Irene Wall

    Kila and Bereaved,
    I don’t discount the importance of lives lost to suicide, whatever the motive. But we have choices to make when it comes to public expenditures and more lives could be saved if those millions spent on building one “suicide fence” on one bridge were directed toward mental health counseling or getting a few more drunk drivers off the road. Stair railings, warning labels, and elevator doors are put in place to protect thousands or millions of people, not a few who “do crazy and stupid things” as you acknowledge. We can’t suicide-proof every bridge, freeway overpass, highway, pier, boat or building that might provide the opportunity for an impulsive act.

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