The California panel that oversees the Golden Gate Bridge voted yesterday to install netting to catch people who throw themselves off the span.
The 4,200-foot-long (1,280-metre-long) suspension bridge, which crosses the entrance to San Francisco Bay, is a tourist magnet that also draws people trying to end their lives.
The netting would be set 20 feet (six metres) below the pathway and extend out 20 feet from the bridge. Officials estimate the barrier will cost $40 million to $50 million.
Such as barrier beneath the link between San Francisco and Marin County has been debated since the 1970s, said Mary Currie, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
Building the barrier will take several years, and the project needs additional environmental study, she said.
A total of 39 people ended their lives from the bridge in 2007, with seven unconfirmed cases, and 19 confirmed so far this year, bridge officials said.
Reuters