Yesterday, while driving to a group canoe trip in Healdsburg, traffic backed-up on the approach to the Golden Gate bridge. I was pretty annoyed because we were already running late and this was just one more delay on an already stressful morning.
As we approached mid-span, I realized that the traffic wasn't for a stalled car but a for a jumper. Luckily, the sixty-something-year-old woman was being assisted back over the railing to safety just as we passed. She looked terrified and exhausted as she briefly looked up and directly at our van-load of hungover shitheads.
It was a spooky moment. I don't know how much it registered with the rest of my passengers but it left a mark on my day.
We crossed the bridge again just as the sun dipped out of sight. Everyone in the van was asleep and it was really quiet. The fog was thick and moving very fast -- like I was watching something that had been filmed very slowly and played back at regular speed. By mid-span it was so dense I could only see headlights and the blurry, dark shapes of the cars in the approaching lanes. It just seemed like the fog was obscuring the earlier incident.
I hope the woman is ok. I hope that whatever lead her over that rail was swept away with the fog.
As we approached mid-span, I realized that the traffic wasn't for a stalled car but a for a jumper. Luckily, the sixty-something-year-old woman was being assisted back over the railing to safety just as we passed. She looked terrified and exhausted as she briefly looked up and directly at our van-load of hungover shitheads.
It was a spooky moment. I don't know how much it registered with the rest of my passengers but it left a mark on my day.
We crossed the bridge again just as the sun dipped out of sight. Everyone in the van was asleep and it was really quiet. The fog was thick and moving very fast -- like I was watching something that had been filmed very slowly and played back at regular speed. By mid-span it was so dense I could only see headlights and the blurry, dark shapes of the cars in the approaching lanes. It just seemed like the fog was obscuring the earlier incident.
I hope the woman is ok. I hope that whatever lead her over that rail was swept away with the fog.
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
On a slightly different note, I hope we don't start getting jumpers on the new section of the Bay Bridge!! I wish that they had put a walkway on then older span as well, so people could really walk across the entire bay. It only seems like an obvious idea, but I guess constructing it would be a pain. Look at what they did with the walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge though. They need to try something to make it possible to go the whole way. As I say though, it does seem like it would invite jumpers. The Golden Gate is higher than the Bay Bridge, by a lot, but I think the old span of the Bay Bridge is quite a bit higher than the new section.
Anyway, yes, this is intense. Your language did the story justice though, and made it just that much more moving.