Washington Ave Bridge Jumper
Found this photo in the TC Flickr Pool.
Originally uploaded by ristee.
Happened last weekend. The photographer’s roommate actually saw the guy jump.
I could only find a small blurb on it in the Pioneer Press.
A 29-year-old man was hospitalized today after he tried to kill himself by jumping off the Washington Avenue bridge in Minneapolis, officials said.
University of Minnesota Police received a 911 call of a man in the Mississippi River around 11:30 a.m., a university police dispatcher said.
Rescuers with the Minneapolis Fire Department and university police brought the man ashore and then to Hennepin County Medical Center, the dispatcher said.
Apparently, it’s pretty easy to get off the side of that bridge if you really want to. The last attempt was in September of last year. Students at the U are discussing more secure barriers.
Barriers would force people to switch to the pedestrian bridge upstream or Franklin downstream.
All barriers would do is take away a beautiful view from a campus that is growing more and more ugly every year. If barriers were installed, whenever somebody really wants to off themself they’ll either walk down to the franklin bridge or just swallow a bottle of pills instead. The University doesn’t really want to prevent suicides, they just want to avoid the embarassment of having them happen in such a public place.
That money could be much better spent on outreach and mental health treatment programs. It will be terribly sad if they put that walkway behind a cage.