The Golden Gate Bridge will eventually have a net that spans underneath the length bridge in an effort to cut down on the number of suicides that occur there every year now that full funding has been approved.
The Golden Gate Bridge Board of Directors approved the remaining funds needed to go ahead on a suicide barrier for the bridge, reports KCBS. The whole project needed $76 million, but was $7 million shy until Friday.
The funding for the net, which will hang two stories below the bridge, will come from a variety of ways, including from tolls, Prop 63 and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. About $50 million will be provided by the federal government.
According to CNN,. The hope is that once the net is up, it will deter suicide attempts, of which there have been many. The Bridge Rail Foundation estimates there have been 1,600 suicides since 1937, with 46 coming in 2013.
"Where nets have been erected as suicide barriers they've proven to be 100% effective thus far," Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District CEO and general manager Denis Mulligan said. "Suicidal people have stopped jumping at those locations."