The Golden Gate Bridge

In October of 2008, a suicide barrier was finally approved for the Golden Gate Bridge. We have all seen the beauty of this bridge, and seen wonderful pictures of it with the bay fog on an early morning in San Francisco. But this beautifully crafted bridge has a dark side: it is the most common place in the country to commit suicide. Now this fact would seem to get the attention of someone; one would think after decades of people calling for some sort of a barrier, some sort of protection, something would have been done by now.Well, not exactly. More then probably thousands of deaths (we will never know how many people have died since some were not witnessed or their bodies were never found) and 70 years after it was finished, the bridge is finally going to have a suicide barrier. But wait, there's more! The district does not have enough funds to pay for the net, and it will probably take at least two MORE years for the proper studies, funding, and permits to be completed. That is about 60 more people who will jump added to the already too long list. It is very sad to see that precautions were not taken sooner; it should not have taken this long to even consider something that allows someone to so easily toss their life away. Even with other rules in place to lower the number of people who jump (no pedestrians at night, phones that lead to a crisis line, etc.), they can still jump. This issue should not have taken so long to come up and the government needs to step in soon so that more important lives are not lost in such a quick and fatal decision.