The Bridge

Jamie and I watched a very powerful, chilling documentary last night called The Bridge. It is a documentary about the large number of suicides that take place on the Golden Gate Bridge. It was made in 2006 and the film maker spent one year filming the GG Bridge during daylight hours from multiple angles. He actually caught most of that year's over 20 jumpers on tape. More people choose to end their life on the GG Bridge than any other location in the world. Sometimes they actually fly in to San Francisco from all over the world just for that purpose.

The film is really a study on the emotions, mental instability, and circumstances that lead to a suicide and the emotions of those left behind. The thing that makes this an incredible documentary is it is absolutely beautifully shot. And it is filmed with almost no "hollywood drama". There's no musical build-up to the jumps. No crazy camera tricks. It's simply filmed from a distance with a decent zoom lense. It's a very honest look at a very troubling subject.

Suicide is one of the most troubling things in life to me. It's hard to imagine a seemingly normal individual coming to such a state of hopelessness. This is one of the reasons it's so important for us to be Jesus to as many people as possible. You never know when you're going to be that God-sent lifeline that someone desperately needs.

The Golden Gate Bridge is probably my favorite location in the world. It's stunningly beautiful. When we lived in the Bay Area, I tried to visit it as often as possible, but I wish I would have visited more. Below is the trailer for the film.