Golden Gate guardian builds bridge between suicide and life

Golden Gate guardian builds bridge between suicide and life

X Golden Gate guardian builds bridge between suicide and life California Highway Patrol man learned how talking brought people back 'over the rail' Retired California Highway Patrol sergeant Kevin Briggs at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Photograph: Simon Carswell Topics: First published: Sat, Oct 31, 2015, 05:00 Light Pole 69 stands in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge, that stately reddish-orange feat of engineering at the mouth of San Francisco Bay. It is around here that many people have jumped to their deaths over the years. It is also where Sgt Kevin Briggs was despatched on his motorbike again and again while working for the California Highway Patrol for 17 years. Briggs, retired since 2013, walks the bridge with me, recalling the many moments he found people on the "chord" – the narrow steel ledge on the other side of a four-foot rail – looking down 220 feet to the churning waters below. By gently talking and engaging, Briggs has saved hundreds of lives.

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