February 28, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Kevin Briggs' job is talking people off a ledge....or, more specifically, the Golden Gate Bridge's ledge. Here's Kevin to talk about how he's saved over two hundred people from taking their lives by asking them a simple question—"how are you doing".
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we return to our American stories. Our next story
comes to us from Kevin Briggs. Kevin is a former
sergeant in the California Highway Patrol, and most of us
know that by the word Chips, but he's also known
as the Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge because he's
persuaded over two hundred people from taking their lives by
(00:30):
jumping off the two hundred and forty five foot span
across the Golden Gate straight. Here's Kevin describing one of
his experiences trying to prevent a man from jumping off
the bridge.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I believe it was July twenty second, in twenty thirteen.
This gentleman was from New Jersey, had flown all the
way out to the bridge. Extremely intelligent guy, and I
think he was just thirty two, and he had been
suffering for a long time with bipolar and he felt
(01:19):
he was not getting the treatment that he should. One
of the biggest things also was he was gay. Family
was Jewish, and he did not want to tell his
father that he was gay. We talked for about an
hour and then this gentleman asked us if we knew
the story of Pandora's Box, and I said yes, I
(01:41):
didn't remember it really all that fantastic, But apparently Zeus
created Pandora sent her down to Earth with a box
instead never ever ever opened this box, Well, of course
she does, and outflies all sorts of plagues and sorrows
and things against man. The only good thing to come
out of that box hope. Now, this individual stops for
(02:03):
a second and looks at us and says, when I
opened the box, Hope is the greatest evil. And that
was so profound. He was just a genius, not under
the influence of drugs or alcohol. But I didn't know
what to say after that. I have never heard something
like that. We were all struck. I didn't know how
to respond to this. And he was sitting on that
(02:26):
cord facing northbound, and he sat up straight, he looked
straight ahead, and I saw a tear come down his
right eye. He just leaned to his right and he
was gone. The bridge, it's about one point seven miles long.
(02:52):
From the roadway down to the water is about two
hundred and twenty feet and then from the top of
the towers there's two towers, North tower and South Tower
that is about seven hundred and fifty feet above the water.
And then we have about a four foot four and
a half foot rail and on the other side of
that is like an ibeam and we call it the
cord chord. That's where most folks will go when they're
(03:15):
contemplating suicide and getting ready for it is they will
stand over the rail on this cord. The bridge gets
visited by millions of people every year. Hundreds of thousands
cross it in vehicles every day, is commuting to and
from the city. And until just a couple of years ago,
it was the number one spot in the United States
(03:38):
for loss of life to suicide by a cross that
bridge many many, many times. Until I was with the
patrol and started working on that bridge that I see
and realized how many people came to that bridge to jump.
(04:00):
I would average four to six cases a month. I
didn't know what to say, how to approach, what to do.
Am I responsible if they jump? I mean, this was horrendous,
What a disservice to those folks, I and myself and
the other officers that would do this type of work.
I went through crisis that are Vention team training, what
we call CIT, and then went through the FBI Crisis
(04:23):
Negotiator's course. But Most of the things that I learned
were unfortunately on the back of those folks that I
spoke with. So what we would look for is generally
people who are solo by themselves. Maybe they have a
backpack on, you know, their belongings, and maybe they're pacing
(04:43):
up and down the bridge and they'll come up to
the bridge and walk around for a while. Then maybe
they'll come off the bridge and they'll go back on.
These are things that we would look for, and then
we would want to contact them just to see how
they are doing. Sometimes they get angry, people get embarrassed
walk off the bridge. But if we can get to them,
you know, before they get over that ray on the
(05:03):
stand on this ibeam. Most of the time, if we
get a chance to talk to folks, then we can
get them off of that bridge. I would come up
and just introduce myself. I raised my right hand, I
introduced myself as Kevin, and I try to get their
first name, and if I can get that, try to
personalize everything. A lot of times they one talk and
(05:25):
that's fantastic. The longer I can keep you here, the better.
I think. It takes so much courage to go over
that rail imagine the courage that it takes to come
back over. I want them to make up that mind
that they want to live. So if I can come
up with, you know what, help me understand what's going
(05:46):
on with you, so they see, actually there's somebody here
that's listening, that's not trying to fix anything, that just
wants to be here, and that's actually concerned for me.
Sometimes this is the first time that that has actually
happened to them. So I'm there as long as it takes.
You have me, You have my whole you know, my
(06:07):
whole essence here with you. So we're going through this together.
This is the reason why I don't grab people. I
want them to come back over on their own. I
think that takes a hell of a lot of courage,
and if they do that, I think their chances of
survival long term are much much better. A lot of times,
(06:29):
when somebody says something like world's a better place without me,
I'm a burden to everybody. They haven't even really checked
with those folks. Have you talked with your family and
friends about this? Well, no I haven't. But this is
how I feel a lot of times. This is years
and the making lots of different things, maybe divorce, loss
of income, illness in their own with their own selves.
(06:52):
So what has been going on? I want to try
to figure that out, what's the history behind this, and
then what can we do to make things better for
this particular time, for this particular half hour, one hour,
whatever it is, to get them past this crisis, because
I know if we can get them past this, a
lot of times they will not attempt again. It's just
(07:13):
a matter of getting them the right help. So my
job is to get him past this immediate crisis. I'm
a big believer in finding reason, purpose, and hope, if
not all free, at least one. So I had an
elderly gentleman over the rail, small in stature. I don't
even know how he got over the rail. This guy,
(07:34):
he had had a very very tough life, drugs and
alcohol all his life, beaten down hard to get a job.
He had just had enough. He's just tired. He was
given almost pretty much a very small apartment shared with
other people in San Francisco, in an area called the Tenderloin,
which is a very very tough area of San Francisco.
(07:56):
And he was talking to me. He was fine talking,
he was not under the fluence at the time, but
he had just had enough. He says, life has just
kicked me from day one, and of course my own
bad choices and he self. He's admitting all of this,
and I'm thinking, how in the hell can I find
a reason, purpose of hope for this gentleman. And I'm
trying to come up with things to talk about. The
(08:17):
longer we can talk, the better try to develop that rapport.
So in speaking with him, I asked him, I'm running
out of things that talk about. That's why I asked him,
you know, what is your place like down in the
tender One. I've never been to an apartment there, he say,
telling me, is terrible? Is there terrible? He goes, it
is just me. I have my own apartment. It's very small.
(08:39):
All I have is a bed, a set of drawers.
On top of that set of drawers, I have my
goldfish and a couple other things. And it clicked in
my head, well your goldfish, Well let's talk about your goldfish.
Goldfish have a name, And he told me the goldfish's name,
which I don't remember. But he had no friends, no family, nothing,
So he spoke about this goldfish. Now many many times
(09:02):
in my experience, I have seen that when people come
up to that bridge, they have not planned anything after that.
So in keeping with this, I asked him, sir, if
you jump today, and I really don't want you to,
I'm here for you. Who's going to feed your goldfish?
(09:22):
He actually came back over because of this goldfish, knowing
that it's going to die because nobody's going to feed it.
We anybody, I must say, we're all negotiators at some point,
we're all guardians of things. We need to learn how
to talk to folks and try to find that reason,
purpose and hope if at all possible.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Montay Montgomery and Reagan Habib and the
book is The Guardians of the Golden Gate Bridge. Author
is Kevin Briggs. You've just heard him tell his story
and you can go to pivotalpoints dot com to book
him as a speaker and learn more about his work
(10:09):
and efforts on mental health and suicide prevention. He talked
about that story of the man leaning over and jumping,
and imagine being the guy tasked with trying to stop
a person committing suicide and watching it happen. But for
all those times that didn't happen, well, this was his reason,
(10:31):
his hope. Kevin's purpose was to prevent those suicides. The
story of the Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge, Kevin Briggs'
story and the many lives saved by his work here
on our American Stories
And we return to our American stories. Our next story
comes to us from Kevin Briggs. Kevin is a former
sergeant in the California Highway Patrol, and most of us
know that by the word Chips, but he's also known
as the Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge because he's
persuaded over two hundred people from taking their lives by
(00:30):
jumping off the two hundred and forty five foot span
across the Golden Gate straight. Here's Kevin describing one of
his experiences trying to prevent a man from jumping off
the bridge.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I believe it was July twenty second, in twenty thirteen.
This gentleman was from New Jersey, had flown all the
way out to the bridge. Extremely intelligent guy, and I
think he was just thirty two, and he had been
suffering for a long time with bipolar and he felt
(01:19):
he was not getting the treatment that he should. One
of the biggest things also was he was gay. Family
was Jewish, and he did not want to tell his
father that he was gay. We talked for about an
hour and then this gentleman asked us if we knew
the story of Pandora's Box, and I said yes, I
(01:41):
didn't remember it really all that fantastic, But apparently Zeus
created Pandora sent her down to Earth with a box
instead never ever ever opened this box, Well, of course
she does, and outflies all sorts of plagues and sorrows
and things against man. The only good thing to come
out of that box hope. Now, this individual stops for
(02:03):
a second and looks at us and says, when I
opened the box, Hope is the greatest evil. And that
was so profound. He was just a genius, not under
the influence of drugs or alcohol. But I didn't know
what to say after that. I have never heard something
like that. We were all struck. I didn't know how
to respond to this. And he was sitting on that
(02:26):
cord facing northbound, and he sat up straight, he looked
straight ahead, and I saw a tear come down his
right eye. He just leaned to his right and he
was gone. The bridge, it's about one point seven miles long.
(02:52):
From the roadway down to the water is about two
hundred and twenty feet and then from the top of
the towers there's two towers, North tower and South Tower
that is about seven hundred and fifty feet above the water.
And then we have about a four foot four and
a half foot rail and on the other side of
that is like an ibeam and we call it the
cord chord. That's where most folks will go when they're
(03:15):
contemplating suicide and getting ready for it is they will
stand over the rail on this cord. The bridge gets
visited by millions of people every year. Hundreds of thousands
cross it in vehicles every day, is commuting to and
from the city. And until just a couple of years ago,
it was the number one spot in the United States
(03:38):
for loss of life to suicide by a cross that
bridge many many, many times. Until I was with the
patrol and started working on that bridge that I see
and realized how many people came to that bridge to jump.
(04:00):
I would average four to six cases a month. I
didn't know what to say, how to approach, what to do.
Am I responsible if they jump? I mean, this was horrendous,
What a disservice to those folks, I and myself and
the other officers that would do this type of work.
I went through crisis that are Vention team training, what
we call CIT, and then went through the FBI Crisis
(04:23):
Negotiator's course. But Most of the things that I learned
were unfortunately on the back of those folks that I
spoke with. So what we would look for is generally
people who are solo by themselves. Maybe they have a
backpack on, you know, their belongings, and maybe they're pacing
(04:43):
up and down the bridge and they'll come up to
the bridge and walk around for a while. Then maybe
they'll come off the bridge and they'll go back on.
These are things that we would look for, and then
we would want to contact them just to see how
they are doing. Sometimes they get angry, people get embarrassed
walk off the bridge. But if we can get to them,
you know, before they get over that ray on the
(05:03):
stand on this ibeam. Most of the time, if we
get a chance to talk to folks, then we can
get them off of that bridge. I would come up
and just introduce myself. I raised my right hand, I
introduced myself as Kevin, and I try to get their
first name, and if I can get that, try to
personalize everything. A lot of times they one talk and
(05:25):
that's fantastic. The longer I can keep you here, the better.
I think. It takes so much courage to go over
that rail imagine the courage that it takes to come
back over. I want them to make up that mind
that they want to live. So if I can come
up with, you know what, help me understand what's going
(05:46):
on with you, so they see, actually there's somebody here
that's listening, that's not trying to fix anything, that just
wants to be here, and that's actually concerned for me.
Sometimes this is the first time that that has actually
happened to them. So I'm there as long as it takes.
You have me, You have my whole you know, my
(06:07):
whole essence here with you. So we're going through this together.
This is the reason why I don't grab people. I
want them to come back over on their own. I
think that takes a hell of a lot of courage,
and if they do that, I think their chances of
survival long term are much much better. A lot of times,
(06:29):
when somebody says something like world's a better place without me,
I'm a burden to everybody. They haven't even really checked
with those folks. Have you talked with your family and
friends about this? Well, no I haven't. But this is
how I feel a lot of times. This is years
and the making lots of different things, maybe divorce, loss
of income, illness in their own with their own selves.
(06:52):
So what has been going on? I want to try
to figure that out, what's the history behind this, and
then what can we do to make things better for
this particular time, for this particular half hour, one hour,
whatever it is, to get them past this crisis, because
I know if we can get them past this, a
lot of times they will not attempt again. It's just
(07:13):
a matter of getting them the right help. So my
job is to get him past this immediate crisis. I'm
a big believer in finding reason, purpose, and hope, if
not all free, at least one. So I had an
elderly gentleman over the rail, small in stature. I don't
even know how he got over the rail. This guy,
(07:34):
he had had a very very tough life, drugs and
alcohol all his life, beaten down hard to get a job.
He had just had enough. He's just tired. He was
given almost pretty much a very small apartment shared with
other people in San Francisco, in an area called the Tenderloin,
which is a very very tough area of San Francisco.
(07:56):
And he was talking to me. He was fine talking,
he was not under the fluence at the time, but
he had just had enough. He says, life has just
kicked me from day one, and of course my own
bad choices and he self. He's admitting all of this,
and I'm thinking, how in the hell can I find
a reason, purpose of hope for this gentleman. And I'm
trying to come up with things to talk about. The
(08:17):
longer we can talk, the better try to develop that rapport.
So in speaking with him, I asked him, I'm running
out of things that talk about. That's why I asked him,
you know, what is your place like down in the
tender One. I've never been to an apartment there, he say,
telling me, is terrible? Is there terrible? He goes, it
is just me. I have my own apartment. It's very small.
(08:39):
All I have is a bed, a set of drawers.
On top of that set of drawers, I have my
goldfish and a couple other things. And it clicked in
my head, well your goldfish, Well let's talk about your goldfish.
Goldfish have a name, And he told me the goldfish's name,
which I don't remember. But he had no friends, no family, nothing,
So he spoke about this goldfish. Now many many times
(09:02):
in my experience, I have seen that when people come
up to that bridge, they have not planned anything after that.
So in keeping with this, I asked him, sir, if
you jump today, and I really don't want you to,
I'm here for you. Who's going to feed your goldfish?
(09:22):
He actually came back over because of this goldfish, knowing
that it's going to die because nobody's going to feed it.
We anybody, I must say, we're all negotiators at some point,
we're all guardians of things. We need to learn how
to talk to folks and try to find that reason,
purpose and hope if at all possible.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Montay Montgomery and Reagan Habib and the
book is The Guardians of the Golden Gate Bridge. Author
is Kevin Briggs. You've just heard him tell his story
and you can go to pivotalpoints dot com to book
him as a speaker and learn more about his work
(10:09):
and efforts on mental health and suicide prevention. He talked
about that story of the man leaning over and jumping,
and imagine being the guy tasked with trying to stop
a person committing suicide and watching it happen. But for
all those times that didn't happen, well, this was his reason,
(10:31):
his hope. Kevin's purpose was to prevent those suicides. The
story of the Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge, Kevin Briggs'
story and the many lives saved by his work here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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