copyright © 2005 Brian E. Rochlin

The Gate is Golden

The Fall So Blue

By Brian E. Rochlin

 

IN DARKNESS, BRIAN IS SEATED NEXT TO A TABLE WITH A SMALL GLASS BOWL. A VOICE CALLS OUT FROM THE DARKENED THEATER.

VOICE: Every Two Weeks.

LIGHTS UP

BRIAN PULLS OUT A BOOK WITH A PICTURE OF THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, AND LEANS IT AGAINST A BOWL SO IT STANDS UPRIGHT.

BRIAN: This is the Golden Gate Bridge. By any stretch of the imagination, a remarkable structure.

Each of it’s two main cables weigh over 11, 000 tons. Eleven THOUSAND tons.

If you were to take the concrete used to build the bridge and turn it into ten foot wide sidewalks–and who wouldn’t dream of doing that?–you could create two of them, two ten foot wide, concrete sidewalks that stretch from Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska.

VOICE: Every Two Weeks.

BRIAN: It’s actual color isn’t Golden. It’s an orange vermillion, but in the dying light of day… At dusk… It appears to shimmer like gold.

And at night…

DIM LIGHTS

…when light has fallen the beam that illuminate the bridge likewise cast a golden glow.

The bridge appears golden at sunset…through the evening…as dawn breaks across the bay…but never at noon…

RAISE LIGHTS

,..when the harsh light of day reveals its true colors.

VOICE: Every two weeks.

BRIAN: At 12 noon, on May 28, 1937, FDR, while seated in the White House, signaled the opening of this magnificent landmark.

And the bridge opened for traffic.

BRIAN MOVES A TOY CAR FROM ONE SIDE OF THE PICTURE TO THE OTHER AND BACK.

BRIAN: Every day, more than 100,000 cars travel the 4,200 foot span that carries them from San Francisco to Marin County and back. That’s 4/5s of a mile across. Since it’s opening, more than a billion cars have traveled the span.

BRIAN MOVES MORE CARS BACK AND FORTH ACROSS THE PICTURE

And the bridge is open to bicycle and foot traffic as well. On the opening day of the bridge, more than 200,000 citizens of San Francisco walked across the bridge in celebration of this event.

It is one of the most recognized landmarks in the world. Its golden towers–each extend more than 746 feet above the bay.

VOICE: Every two weeks.

BRIAN: It has been photographed countless times…at all times of day, in all weather conditions. And since the bay is often filled with a dense fog…

BRIAN BINGS UP BOWLS WITH DRY ICE AND POURS WARM WATER INTO THEM, CAUSING "FOG" TO FLOW BEFORE THE BRIDGE.

…many of the photos show the towers of the bridge reaching for the light beyond the thick cover of fog.

For many, growing up in San Francisco, included a drunken high school rite of passage:

BRIAN SHOWS AN AERIAL VIEW SHOT.

Climbing one of the 11,000 ton cables to the top of one of the 746 high towers.

HE MOVES A MATCH ALONG THE CABLE TO THE TOP OF A TOWER

And then some would jump.

BRIAN LETS THE MATCH FALL INTO THE BOWL.

VOICE: Every two weeks.

BRIAN BEGINS TOSSING MATCHES INTO THE BOWL FROM VARIOUS POINTS ALONG THE PICTURE.

Most of the people who jump from the Golden Gate Bridge don’t climb the tower to do so. Instead, they simply climb a little four foot high safety railing, and lower themselves to the bridge’s outmost edge, a nearly three-foot-wide ridge known as "the chord."

The chord is merely 220 feet above sea level. Which is still enough to turn your insides to liquid upon impact.

The view from there is spectacular. One can see Treasure Island in the distance. Alcatraz Island straight ahead of them, San Francisco in all its glory to one side, and Angel Island to another.

The view is so stunning that some people turn around at that moment and don’t make the jump…. But most do.

A few survive. And every one of them, every last one tells the story that part way down, they realized that whatever problems they were facing, whatever insurmountable issues brought them to the precipice and beyond, seemed petty in the light of what they faced. Seemed manageable in the light of imminent death.

Since the bridge’s opening…on average…a person has jumped…

BRIAN AND VOICE: …every - two - weeks.

VOICE: Every two weeks.

Brian: Every two weeks, someone makes the decision to jump.

And I have to think that if every person who survived realized what a mistake they were making….then every person who didn’t must have felt the same way. Before their insides were turned to liquid.

A person jumps from the golden span of the bridge every two weeks. To date, more than 1,200 people have committed suicide.

BRIAN DUMPS THE REST OF A LARGE BOX OF MATCHES INTO THE BOWL.

I know that everyone faces moments when they consider that the end is better than the continuing. I know I have. I’m sure you have, too.

And I’m not one to judge. I believe that we should stay out of the way of this decision. If anyone wants to die, they have the right to.

But if every survivor thinks they made a mistake…. Shouldn’t that tell us something?

Every soul is a light, and launched as they are from the golden span of life, some of them burn out too quickly.

Brian lights a match and tosses it

into the bowl.

Lights fade, while matches burn.

 

 

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