San Francisco is installing stainless steel nets on both sides of the 1.7-mile Golden Gate Bridge to stop suicides thanks to a campaign by men who immediately regretted their jump after nearly 2,000 people jumped to their deaths

The city of San Francisco has completed the installation of two stainless steel mesh nets on both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge as part of a campaign to prevent suicides.

City officials approved the project more than a decade ago. But continued delays have so far prevented suicide prevention barriers from being completed.

On Wednesday, officials announced that the 20-foot-wide mesh had been placed on either side of the 1.7-mile-long bridge as a way to discourage jumping. Nearly 2,000 people have died since the bridge was built in 1937.

Dennis Muligan, general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, said at the milestone event this week that the installed barriers are “already working as intended.”

The stainless steel rope mesh is intended as a deterrent, and those who try to continue jumping will be seriously injured. ABC news local affiliate reported.

“It's like jumping into a cheese grater,” he said in part. 'It's not soft. It's not rubber. It doesn't stretch.'

He added: “We want people to know that if you come here, it will hurt if you jump.”

In 2023 there was a significant drop in the number of people, from an annual average of 30 to 14, and these deaths occurred in areas where nets had not yet been installed.

Nearly 2,000 people have jumped to their deaths since the Golden Grate Bridge was built in 1937

Kevin Hines, now 42, was 19 when he survived a suicide attempt by jumping from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Hines is one of 36 people who survived a fall from the Golden Gate Bridge

“We have installed a continuous physical suicide barrier along the entire length of the 1.7-mile bridge on the east and west sides,” Mulligan said. “The bridge is sealed.”

The nets will be placed six meters below the deck of the bridge and are made of marine-grade stainless steel which, he explained, can withstand the harshest elements, including high winds, salt water and fog, Mulligan said.

Cars driving over the bridge do not see the barriers, but they are visible to pedestrians standing near the rails.

Mulligan said that before the installation was completed, there were people who still tried to jump off the bridge but fell into the net instead, and crews helped them.

However, he said about a handful of people were able to jump from the net into the ocean and died.

Kevin Hines, now 42, who suffers from bipolar disorder, was 19 in September 2000 when he miraculously survived a suicide attempt by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Hines is just one of 36 people who survived after jumping from the iconic monument.

For decades, he, his father and a group of other parents who lost children on the bridge advocated tirelessly for a barrier, but faced opposition from some who wanted to preserve the bridge's integrity.

Hines, who now works as a suicide prevention advocate, said, “If it had just been there, I would have been stopped by the police and gotten the help I needed immediately, and I would have never broken my back, never broken three vertebrae have shattered and never been in this place. path I was on.”

He added: 'I'm so grateful that a small group of like-minded people never gave up on something so important.'

The project to build nets around the bridge started in 2008 and continued in 2014 Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District officials approved the project for $76 million, but construction costs skyrocketed to $224 million, Mulligan told ABC News.