vip in the city

Don’t do it

Driving to DC on Friday afternoon, I spied this sign on the approach to the Delaware Memorial Bridge:

Are jumpers such a widespread problem on this 2.5 mile span? A little research shows that between 1952 and 2003, 132 people took the plunge, which while not insignificant, is nowhere near the figures for the Golden Gate Bridge. I was stunned to read in The New Yorker a while back that a person jumps off that bridge every two weeks(!), on average — at least twelve hundred people since the bridge opened 70 years ago this month — a figure which prompted the initiation of the Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Deterrent System Study in 2006.

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a toll collector? Here’s an interesting Time magazine profile from 1980 when it costs 60 cents to cross from New Jersey into Delaware — now it’s $3.00 — and a somewhat less morbid view of the bridge:

And speaking of jumping off bridges (after which I will stop, promise!): David Blaine may just be the most annoying man on the planet.