Sergeant Kevin Briggs (also known as the Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge [1] [2] ) is a California Highway Patrol officer noted for his work in suicide intervention, having dissuaded more than two hundred people from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay. [3] In 2013, Briggs retired from the California Highway Patrol to focus his efforts on suicide prevention.
Kevin Briggs joined the United States Army in 1981 and served for 3 years. [4] In 1987, he became a correctional officer working at Soledad and San Quentin prisons. [5] Briggs graduated from the California Highway Patrol Academy in 1990. In 1994 he began patrolling the Golden Gate Bridge, estimating that he had dissuaded roughly two per month from committing suicide. Two people did jump after his intercession. [6]
In 2003, Briggs described a typical conversation — starting by asking how the person is doing, then asking their plans for the following day. He would ask "are you here to hurt yourself?" [7] If they did not have plans for the next day, he'd try to make plans with them, inviting them to come back to the bridge if their plan did not work out at the end of the day. [8]
In May 2013, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention recognized the California Highway Patrol with a public service award in suicide prevention. Briggs accepted the award on behalf of the California Highway Patrol. [7] [9] In November 2013, NBC News chronicled Briggs and reported on his impending retirement. After his retirement from the California Highway Patrol, he plans on focusing his work on suicide prevention. [10]
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km) strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula—to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait. It also carries pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and is designated as part of U.S. Bicycle Route 95. Recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Wonders of the Modern World, the bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco and California.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is a state patrol of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and roads and streets outside city limits, and can exercise law enforcement powers anywhere within the state. The California Highway Patrol can assist local and county agencies and can patrol major city streets along with local and county law enforcement, state and interstate highways, and is the primary law enforcement agency in rural parts of the state.
State Route 37 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs 21 miles (34 km) along the northern shore of San Pablo Bay. It serves as a vital connection in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, running from U.S. Route 101 in Novato, through northeastern Marin County, and the southern tips of both Sonoma and Solano Counties to Interstate 80 in Vallejo. Sonoma Raceway and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom are accessible from Highway 37.
The Richmond–San Rafael Bridge is the northernmost of the east–west crossings of California's San Francisco Bay, carrying Interstate 580 from Richmond on the east to San Rafael on the west. It opened in 1956, replacing ferry service by the Richmond–San Rafael Ferry Company, and was officially renamed in 1981 to honor California State Senator John F. McCarthy, who championed the bridge's creation.
The Central Freeway is a roughly one-mile (1.5 km) elevated freeway in San Francisco, California, United States, connecting the Bayshore/James Lick Freeway with the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Most of the freeway is part of US 101, which exits at Mission Street on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. The freeway once extended north to Turk Street, and initially formed part of a loop around downtown, but was damaged along with the Embarcadero in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake; both highways have since been replaced with the surface-level Octavia Boulevard and Embarcadero, respectively.
The San Diego–Coronado Bridge, locally referred to as the Coronado Bridge, is a prestressed concrete/steel girder bridge fixed-link, crossing over San Diego Bay in the United States, linking San Diego with Coronado, California. The bridge is signed as part of State Route 75.
State Route 480 was a state highway in San Francisco, California, United States, consisting of the elevated double-decker Embarcadero Freeway, the partly elevated Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate Bridge and the proposed and unbuilt section in between. The unbuilt section from Doyle Drive to Van Ness Avenue was to have been called the Golden Gate Freeway and the Embarcadero Freeway as originally planned would have extended from Van Ness along the north side of Bay Street and then along the Embarcadero to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Jumping from a dangerous location, such as from a high window, balcony, or roof, or from a cliff, dam, or bridge, is an often used suicide method. The 2023 ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for jumping from a high place is X80*, and this method of suicide is also known clinically as autokabalesis. Many countries have noted suicide bridges such as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Other well known suicide sites for jumping include the Eiffel Tower and Niagara Falls.
A suicide bridge is a bridge used frequently by people to end their lives, most typically by jumping off and into the water or ground below. A fall from the height of a tall bridge into water may be fatal, although some people have survived jumps from high bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge. However, significant injury or death is far from certain; numerous studies report minimally injured persons who died from drowning.
The Joy of Life is a 2005 experimental landscape documentary film by filmmaker Jenni Olson about the history of suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge, and the adventures of a butch lesbian in San Francisco, California. Following its January 2005 premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, the film played a pivotal role in renewing debate about the need for a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge and garnered praise and awards for its unique filmmaking style.
U.S. Route 101 (US 101) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway, stretching from Los Angeles, California, to Tumwater, Washington. The California portion of US 101 is one of the last remaining and longest U.S. Routes still active in the state, and the longest highway of any kind in California. US 101 was also one of the original national routes established in 1926. Significant portions of US 101 between the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area follow El Camino Real, the commemorative route connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions.
The Bridge is a 2006 documentary film by Eric Steel spanning one year of filming at the Golden Gate Bridge which crosses the Golden Gate entrance to San Francisco Bay, connecting the city of San Francisco, California to the Marin Headlands of Marin County, in 2004. The film shows a number of suicides, and features interviews with family and friends of some of the identified people who had thrown themselves from the bridge that year and one person who had jumped previously and survived.
Andrew Jackson Bryant, known as A.J. Bryant, (1831–1888) was the seventeenth mayor of San Francisco, California, serving from December 1875 to December 1879 during a lengthy economic depression that struck San Francisco and the rest of the country. Bryant was a strong advocate for an eight-hour work day as well as legislation to halt the immigration of Chinese laborers into the state. A prominent insurance man and a sportsman, he drowned in the San Francisco Bay after falling from a ferryboat.
A suicide barrier is a structure intended to deter people from attempting suicide by deliberately jumping from a high place on a structure. Suicide barriers often consist of nets, metal screening, and fencing. Suicide barriers may be placed on tall bridges, observation decks, and other tall structures.
California's transportation system is complex and dynamic. Although known for its car culture and extensive network of freeways and roads, the state also has a vast array of rail, sea, and air transport. Several subway, light rail, and commuter rail networks are found in many of the state's largest population centers. In addition, with the state's location on the West Coast of the United States, several important ports in California handle freight shipments from the Pacific Rim and beyond. A number of airports are also spread out across the state, ranging from small general aviation airports to large international hubs like Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport.
Interstate 5 (I-5) is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, stretching from the Mexican border at the San Ysidro crossing to the Canadian border near Blaine, Washington. The segment of I-5 in California runs 796.77 miles (1,282.28 km) across the length of the state from San Ysidro to the Oregon state line south of the Medford-Ashland metropolitan area. It is the longest interstate in California, and accounts for more than half of I-5's total length.
The MacArthur Tunnel, formally known as the General Douglas MacArthur Tunnel, is a highway tunnel in San Francisco, California.
Between 1937 and 2012, an estimated 1,400 bodies were recovered of people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge, located in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States.
John Kevin Hines is an American suicide prevention speaker who attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California in 2000 at the age of 19. His story gained major media coverage and he has since become a motivational speaker and advocate for suicide prevention.