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Feb 18 2008 10:34PM EST

Chart of the Day: Suicides and the Golden Gate

A question for those of you who live in the Bay area: If you wanted to commit suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge, where on the structure would you take the leap?

In the middle or closer to one of the coasts (San Francisco or Marin County)? And would you face east towards San Francisco Bay or west towards the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean?

According to this graphic which plots about two-thirds of the known suicides as of 2005, most people choose to face civilization and stay closer to San Francisco.

suicide.gif(click to enlarge)

The graphic is a little misleading in that the bridge is turned 90 degrees clockwise for seemingly aesthetic reasons.


View Larger Map

Both of the above patterns, however, make sense. More residents on the San Francisco side mean more suicides closer to that coast, and with the western walkway typically for bikes only and the eastern walkway predominately for pedestrians, you'd also expect more jumpers to face east.

But what doesn't make as much sense is that the most popular area to jump is close to the bridge's 69th pole. This spot is much closer to the less populous Marin county side. (The number of suicides from the 69th pole is statistically significant even when only taking into account data from the eastern side of the bridge.)

The best explanation that I can come up with is that the 69th pole is nearly the same distance from both walkway entrances, so for very determined jumpers it represents the center of the bridge and a near 100 percent chance of certain death. (Although the suicide "success" rate for the entire bridge is close to 99 percent.)

But we also know that the number of attempted suicides is much higher than the number of successful ones, which means that jumpers aren't necessarily looking for a "no-way-out" solution. And just because it's equidistant from both entrances doesn't necessarily mean that it's the highest spot on the bridge, so are there any other explanations?

(Hat tip: Ryan Schick and Taylor Umlauf)

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