Life Cycles and Bicycles

It's been a historic week here on Belvedere Street. The couple living upstairs from me is getting married tomorrow. The family downstairs from me welcomed a baby boy into the world yesterday. A woman at work found out her first child is going to be a girl on Wednesday.

And today I saw my first suicide jumper on the Golden Gate Bridge.

I was riding my bike home on the ocean side of the bridge and noticed traffic was slow. I saw five police cars pulled over on the other side of the bridge. A big bus blocked my view - and then I saw police officers kneeling in front of the railing, talking to a person with long brown hair hanging off the railing who looked really, really scared.

It was insane. I hustled to the end of the bridge and went underneath to watch froon the city-side, where the figure was. The Coast Guard was out patrolling the waters; other cyclists stopped and told me it was a 17-year old girl standing on tiptoes on the ledge. At one point I saw something fall (a lot faster than I thought it would), but the Coast Guard didn't move so it must have been a backpack or something. A few minutes later the Coast Guard zipped under the bridge, stopped for a few moments, and zipped off to the Marin side. There was a lot of noise coming from the pedestrians on the bridge - but I have no idea if she jumped or not.

Very, very surreal, and brings up the much-debated question about putting up a higher railing on the GGB (the current one is only about 4 feet high, which makes for some stunning views but easier suicide access). And, more generally, it brought up classic questions about life and death, how can it ever get that bad, and what the hell is a 17-year old girl with her whole life ahead of her doing hanging off a railing of one of the most famous landmarks in the country on a sunny Friday afternoon in May.