Suicides    Visiting the Vessel in Hudson Yards involves awareness of the four jumper suicides that have taken place there, hence this special posting. (One almost humorous part of researching suicide is that googled responses online largely come with assumption that the researcher is considering suicide himself so they offer help! But we persevere.)
My first source was the National Institute of Health (NIH), which found that, in 2020, the breakdown in the US was as follows:
55% of men and 30% of women used firearms
28% of men and 29% of women used hanging/suffocation
9% of men and 32% of women used poisoning
8% of men and 9% of women used "other" methods, not specified.
The principal reasons for suicide that the NIH found were: mental disorders, physical health problems, relationship problems, legal problems, job/financial/housing problems.
The NIH reported that the overall suicide rates in the US increased 30% between 2000 and 2020, and that suicide was the cause of 46,000 deaths, or one death every 11 minutes in 2020. However, the NIH concentrated on the three most common methods of suicide, and didn't go into detail about jumpers, which apparently fell in the "other" category. But this already shows that jumping is less prevalent than might be imagined.

Jumper Suicides   The Suicide Prevention Resource Center broke the numbers down more precisely: Firearms 53%; Suffocation (which includes hanging and [carbon monoxide] gas) 27%; Drug Poisoning (which certainly must include willful overdoses) 9%; Non-drug Poisoning 3%; Fall 2%; Cut/Pierce 2%; Drowning 1%; Other 1%.
This is our first numerical indication that jumpers are much rarer than one might think—just 2% die from a "fall", in other words, jumpers. Another statistic I found includes both the US and Europe, which yields a total of 3% being jumpers, but either of these figures is a much smaller percentage than is generally perceived by the public. Can it be that other types of suicide take place more quietly in the home, in bed, in a bathtub, in a garage, while jumping can often be a very public event?
But figures are subject to regional variation. Jumping is the most common method of suicide in Hong Kong, accounting for 52.1% of all reported suicide cases in 2006 and similar rates for the years before that. The University of Hong Kong's Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention believes that it may be due to the abundance of easily accessible high-rise buildings in Hong Kong. I can personally attest to a lot of cliffs there, as well.
Jumping takes place from dangerous locations. This includes man-made structures, such as (1) from a bridge or viaduct (maybe also a dam); (2) from a building, such as from a roof, balcony, or high window, or also from a natural formation, such as (3) from a cliff. On the other hand, jumping might be restricted because tall buildings are often condo or office buildings not accessible to the general public, and because open-air areas of high buildings (such as rooftop restaurants or pools) are often surrounded by high walls that are built precisely to prevent suicides.
It's also reported that jumping deaths are often impulsive, last-minute decisions—but also planned (see below).
But here's a surprise—or maybe not: jumping makes up 20% of suicides in NYC due to the prevalence of publicly accessible tall buildings and structures. Sound familiar?

Cultural Phenomena    Our culture is replete with jumping references, sometimes even humorously. The expression to "end it all" is listed in dictionaries as a standard phrase describing suicide. It's become part of the language and can be used frivolously. Look at this cartoon, which is not atypical:

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You'll smile, despite it being black humor. I might add here that there's an urban legend in the US that many Wall Street investors jumped out of windows (and off ledges?) during the 1929 stock market crash, but that seems not to be true. Also, I feel that the public perception of ledges even existing on buildings at all is exaggerated. No modern buildings have decorative ledges, and some period buildings that do have one close to the top are rare. I think the use of ledges on TV and in the movies used by potential jumpers is exaggerated for dramatic impact. That also goes for the expression "being out on a ledge" to mean being in a precarious position.

We mentioned cliffs above. Lover's Leap, or (in the plural) Lovers' Leap, is a name given to a number of high locations, usually isolated, allowing the possibility of a deliberate jump. Romantic legends of tragedy are often associated with a Lover's Leap. I just saw an online list of 23 locations in the US alone that use that name, and also international ones, some using that name, some with other names. If some lover did really once use such a location—or several lovers over time—I think it's all exaggerated in the public mind as romantic legend. Even Romeo and Juliet didn't jump off a cliff.

Most Popular Locations    You can also find online a list of frequently used suicide locations. At the top of one is a summary of the five most frequently used ones, which we'll investigate in a moment. Below that on this list is a summary of places around the world by continent that have also been used on occasion. Included are the four jumpers at the Vessel.

NUMBER 4: Of the five top locations on that list, we'll start with #4, because it's so different and also because it's the only one on this short list that DOES NOT involve jumpers. It's the Aokigahara forest near Mount Fuji in Japan, known in English by the nickname Suicide Forest (Photo by ajari). In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002. In 2010, the police recorded 54 confirmed suicides out of more than 200 attempts. Suicides are said to increase during March, the end of the fiscal year in Japan. As of 2011, the most common means of suicide in the forest were hanging or drug overdose. Signs at the head of some trails urge suicidal visitors to think of their families and contact a suicide prevention association.
I find it particularly difficult to imagine someone going to a forest of all places to hang himself. Perhaps taking a deliberate drug overdose is just as tragic, tho maybe easier to imagine.

NUMBER 5: We'll see in a moment that the first three locations are bridges, which you might have suspected. But when it comes to jumpers, I want to start with The Gap in Australia, near Sydney. The Gap is a large sea cliff that accounts for roughly 50 suicides a year. I want to set the scene.

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This is a touristy map of Sydney Harbour. To the left, you'll see the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and the equally iconic Sydney Opera House at the famous Circular Quay. Now look to the right, with the suburb of Watsons Bay on the harbor side. The Gap (not shown) is across that narrow peninsula on the Tasman Sea side. This is the sea cliff known as The Gap (Photo by Adam.J.W.C.). Click for details, including of the fence. This is a detail of the area, also looking north, with visitors at the fence (Photo by Ajayvius). And finally, this is a view to the southeast (Photo by Adam.J.W.C.) showing The Gap and the town of Watsons Bay. To the right is downtown Sydney, with the Harbour Bridge. Numerous measures have been implemented to dissuade those at risk of suicide, including erecting an inward-leaning fence to deter people from jumping.

I'm dwelling on this location because it has a positive, even inspirational, note. The late Don Ritchie, a former Navy veteran who was present in Tokyo harbor when the Japanese surrendered in 1945, was credited for saving 180 people from jumping into the sea at The Gap, altho his family says the total is actually more like 500. He lived across the road from The Gap, and starting in 1964, for over a 45-year period, if he saw someone in distress, he would walk across the road and engage them in conversation. He often began by saying "Can I help you in some way?", and afterwards he would invite them back to his home for a cup of tea and a chat. Some would return years later to thank him for his efforts in talking them out of their decision. Ritchie explained his intervention in suicide attempts saying, "You can't just sit there and watch them."
I find equally inspirational the fact that Australia recognized this "Angel of The Gap" in 2009 when he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to the community".

NUMBERS 1-2-3: As mentioned, the three biggest sites are all bridges (including viaducts). #1 is in China, over the Yangtze River in Nanjing. It's the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge (Photo by 西安兵马俑). It claims to have surpassed the Golden Gate Bridge as the most frequent suicide site in the world, with more than 2,000 suicides estimated by 2006. Totals are hard to come by, partly because the Chinese authorities refuse to count those suicides who miss the river, landing in the trees along the riverbank, on the concrete apron below the bridge, or on the ground along the shore. It's possible that such reticence is because China already posts the highest numbers, about 200,000 "reported" suicides each year, constituting one fifth of all the world's suicides. (Upstream, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge averages 24.7 suicides per year, which is not record-breaking.)
But I now discover a positive note here as well. Chen Si is a Chinese man credited with stopping at least 412 potential suicides on the Nanjing bridge. He first intervened with a potential suicide in 2000, saving a woman's life. Since 2003, he's spent every weekend on the bridge, patrolling on foot or on his motorbike, looking for potential suicides. He looks for people who look depressed and walk with no spirit, no direction. He tries to talk to them, even tho sometimes they are already over the railing and he has to pull them back.
Filmmakers released a documentary film about Chen Si in 2015 called Angel of Nanjing. Sound familiar?

It will be little surprise to many that San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge comes in as #2, here looking north (Photo by © Frank Schulenburg / CC BY-SA 4.0). About 2,000 people are estimated to have jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge since it opened in 1937, but now the official count has been halted to prevent people from trying to break records. As in many such places, there are help lines such as via this device at the site (Photo by Guillaume Paumier, CC-BY). But after years of debate, suicide barriers, consisting of stainless steel nets extending 6.1 m (20 ft) from the bridge and supported by structural steel under the walkway, began to be installed in 2017 and was completed in January 2024 (Photo by Kylelovesyou). The metal nets, shown here on the west side in 2022 looking south to San Francisco, are visible from the pedestrian walkways and are expected to be painful to land on. (The first picture above was taken in 2017 and is pre-net.) This is a YouTube video featuring a jump survivor praising the barrier (3:40).

We have another "angel". Sergeant Kevin Briggs, called the Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge, is a California Highway Patrol officer noted for his work in suicide intervention, having dissuaded more than two hundred potential jumpers. Since he began patrolling the Golden Gate Bridge, he's estimated that he's dissuaded roughly two jumpers a month. A typical conversation starts by asking how the person is doing, then asking their plans for the following day. If they had none, he'd try to make plans with them, inviting them to come back to the bridge if their plan did not work out. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has recognized the California Highway Patrol with a public service award in suicide prevention, and Briggs accepted the award on behalf of the group. In retirement, he continues to focus his efforts on suicide prevention.

While jumper suicides have been referred to as impulsive, I think it's also obvious that many potential jumpers deliberately seek out a famous suicide site for the deed, as evidenced by all the sites we've been discussing.

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I hope it isn't an urban legend, but I remember reading about one or more potential jumpers driving across the Bay Bridge (click above right) to cross downtown San Francisco to do the deed at the Golden Gate Bridge, since that is the more famous bridge and jumper site.

Of our three major jumper locations, #3 is officially called the Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto, but is commonly called the Bloor Street Viaduct. But while bridges cross water, viaducts can cross anything. In this case the viaduct crosses the Don River Valley (Map by Lencer). [Union Station is the center of downtown, and (click) the Don River is to the right; note the rail line and parkway next to the water. I estimate the viaduct would be just before they all turn east.]
Actually, in addition to the Don River, the Don Valley Parkway, Bayview Avenue, two railway lines, an electrical transmission line, and a bicycle trail all pass under the spans of the viaduct. In this aerial view (click), the Don River is almost obscured in the trees, but top to bottom, that would be Bayview Avenue, rails, the Don, a possible bicycle path, and the parkway (Photo by Mathew Campbell). The point we make here is that the viaduct crosses a lot more land area than water. The valley is 400 m (440 yd) wide, while the Don is only 15 m (16 yd) wide.
Since it opened in 1918, the viaduct has become a suicide magnet, with the additional macabre proviso that falling bodies from the viaduct posed risk to all the traffic passing underneath.(!) By 2003, there had been nearly 500 suicides, the highest record in Canada and second in North America after the Golden Gate Bridge. The peak was reached in 1997 when the average was one jumper every 22 days.
After numerous delays, a suicide barrier was finally opened in 2003 called the Luminous Veil, which consists of over 9,000 steel rods, 12.7 cm (5 in) apart and 5 m (16 ft) high, stretched to cantilevered girders. It looks like this from the bridge and like this from below (Both Photos by Geoffrey Nham). Of course, emergency phones were also included, as seen here--the Distress Centre hastens to point out that that's a model in mock distress, and he did not dial (Photo by hobvias sudoneighm). But all this begs the question: why call this suicide barrier the Luminous Veil? That became clearer after lighting was installed in 2015.

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These views are self-explanatory as to the name. In addition, all this implicitly implies that the Luminous Veil is a decorative lighting display and downplays its real purpose. The Luminous Veil has received a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence.

New York    Tho we've been discussing suicide bridges with large numbers of jumpers, I'd like to add a bridge in NYC that, like many bridges is known for jumpers, tho not in the record numbers we've been discussing. However, the George Washington Bridge is notable as being the busiest motor vehicle bridge in the world, carrying a traffic volume of over 104 million vehicles in 2019, and is the world's only suspension bridge with 14 vehicular lanes.
The George Washington Bridge is a frequently chosen suicide site in NYC. The first intentional suicide occurred in 1931 a little more than one week after the bridge opened. It's been averaging around 10 suicides per year; a record 18 was first reached in 2012, tho 43 others attempted to do so but were stopped. In 2014, there were 18 again, with 74 saved. In 2015, every 3.5 days someone made their way to the pedestrian walkway to attempt suicide; police did stop 86. In 2016, 12 jumped, and the police stopped 70. In 2017, a suicide attempt was thwarted there once nearly every five days; 68 people were saved, but 15 were lost. The only barrier between them and the Hudson River 25 stories below has been a waist-high metal handrail.
The Port Authority has had officers who monitor cameras trained on the walkway and who can dispatch other officers, even a fully equipped emergency unit, if they see someone among the runners and bicyclists who arouse their suspicions. Until now, that meant someone who lingered too close to the railing for too long.

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Finally in 2017, as shown in the above photo from the NY Times, after 15 deaths and 68 attempts, the Port Authority installed temporary protective netting and a 3.4 m (11 ft)-high fence along the pedestrian walkways on either side. The netting partially overhangs the sidewalks forming a canopy in order to prevent potential jumpers from scaling the fence directly. However, a more permanent barrier was supposed to be installed on both sides; that may have happened, but information is unclear.
This is a YouTube video (2:04) from 2017 about the bridge netting. It points out the problem of the lower deck, where pedestrians are not allowed, but that doesn't prevent people from trying.

Tyler Clementi    We have a rare opportunity to see a jumper suicide from the point of view of the jumper. Many will remember, since it was national news, that in 2010,18-year-old Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after being cyberbullied at Rutgers University, and event that drew national attention to cyberbullying and the struggles facing LGBTQ youth. We'll try to tell his story in sequence.

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Tyler Clementi, from Ridgewood, in northern NJ, 25 minutes northwest of the George Washington Bridge, was a violinist. While in Ridgewood High School, he played with the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra and participated in the Bergen Youth Orchestra as concertmaster.

SEXUALITY; COLLEGE: He was at a monumental point in his life. He'd just come out as gay to his parents before moving out for his freshman year at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, further south in New Brunswick, in central New Jersey. His father accepted him, but his mother was at first wary, since she was strongly influenced by the teachings of her evangelical church. However, she soon accepted him as well, and became his strongest champion.
With these emotions on his mind, he arrived at Rutgers for the start of classes on September 1, 2010. With his suicide taking place on September 22, he was a freshman college student at Rutgers for all of three weeks. I suppose you could say his greatest misfortune was being paired with the wrong roommate, Dharun Ravi (da.RUN, rhymes with "rune"), since the two were totally incompatible. They had little to nothing in common.
They had each researched each other online, which is when Ravi found out that Clementi was gay. They maintained the status quo for those first weeks after they moved in together, but they rarely interacted or spoke. Ravi's text messages to friends described Clementi as shy and awkward.

THE PRANK-CUM-CRIME: At some point before September 17, Clementi had chatted online with a man whose identity has not been made public. In court later, he was identified only as M.B.--his real identity was kept secret since he was also a crime victim who'd had his privacy invaded. While Ravi was out for the evening on the 17th, the man came to Clementi's dorm room for the first time.
Clementi asked Ravi for private use of their room for the evenings of the 19th and 21st. On the first occasion, Ravi did meet M.B., then Clementi said that the two wanted to be alone for the evening. Ravi later claimed in his defense that he was worried about theft and that he left the computer in a state where he could view the webcam stream due to those concerns. Nevertheless, Ravi, assisted by his hallmate Molly Wei, along with four others, viewed the video stream, seeing Clementi and his guest shirtless and kissing, but doing nothing more.
However, Clementi was a follower of Ravi on Twitter and saw his Twitter postings the next day. Then on the 21st, Ravi urged friends and Twitter followers to watch via his webcam a second tryst between Clementi and M.B. He sent a series of text messages, including messages saying, "Yeah, keep the gays away" and "People are having a viewing party with a bottle of Bacardi and beer in this kid's room for my roommate" along with directions on how to view it remotely. However, that viewing never occurred. Tho Ravi had set up the webcam and pointed it towards Clementi's bed, when Clementi returned to his room, he noticed the camera and texted a friend saying he had unplugged Ravi's powerstrip to prevent further video streaming.
That same day, Clementi complained to a resident assistant and two other officials that Ravi had used a webcam to stream part of his private sexual encounter with another man. The resident assistant testified at trial that Clementi appeared shaky and uncomfortable when they met around 11 p.m., and in his official report of the meeting, the resident assistant said that Clementi requested both a room change to a single room and punishment for Ravi, saying that his "roommate used webcam to spy on me. I feel that my privacy has been violated and I am extremely uncomfortable sharing a room with someone who would act in this wildly inappropriate manner."

THE TRAGEDY: On the evening of the 22nd, Clementi left the dorm room and bought food from the campus food court. Then, around 6:30 PM, he drove northeast from central NJ about three-quarters of an hour closer to home in northern NJ, toward the Fort Lee NJ side of the George Washington Bridge. By 8:42 PM, he had posted from his cell phone on Facebook: "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry". His use of that last word speaks volumes. He must have realized how what he was doing because of his great humiliation would sadden his family and others, but that didn't stop him.

This is the Fort Lee side of the bridge looking toward Manhattan. It was taken in 2008, two years before he jumped, so there was no netting (Photo by John O'Connell). His car, wallet, cell phone, and computer were found on or near the bridge. His body was found seven days later, on the 29th, in the river just north of the bridge. This view across the Hudson is from Upper Manhattan towards Fort Lee, showing the waters on the north side of the bridge where he was found (Photo by Jim Harper). The medical examiner gave drowning as the cause of death, noting blunt impact injuries to the torso as well.
The same month Clementi died, four other Americans were reported to have died by suicide after being taunted about their homosexuality.

THE TRIAL: Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei were not charged with a role in the suicide itself. But on the 28th, eight days after the suicide but a day before the body was found, they were each charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for the webcam transmission on the 19th. Ravi was charged with two additional counts for the viewing attempt on the 21st.
On April 20, 2011, a Middlesex County grand jury indicted Ravi on 15 counts of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, tampering with evidence, witness tampering, and hindering apprehension or prosecution.
On May 6, 2011, Wei entered a plea agreement granting her immunity and allowing her to avoid prosecution in exchange for her testimony against Ravi, plus 300 hours of community service, counseling, and classes on dealing with people of alternative lifestyles.
Ravi went to trial in early 2012, and was convicted on May 21, 2012, on all charges related to the webcam viewing, with the jury additionally finding that Clementi reasonably believed that Ravi had targeted him for his romantic orientation, thus making Ravi guilty of committing hate crimes against Clementi. However, after an appeals court overturned parts of the conviction, Ravi pleaded guilty to one count of attempted invasion of privacy on October 27, 2016. He spent 30 days in jail, but was paroled after 20 days. He was on probation for three years, and spent 300 hours of community service.
One single source, the Deccan Herald in India, said Ravi also had to pay a US$10,000 fine to go to a facility dedicated to victims of bias crimes. However, I've found no other source mentioning this.
Since Ravi had immigrated at age 6 with his parents from India and was a permanent resident of the US, there was a question of whether he should be deported. However, Clementi's family, M.B., and the judge all recommended Ravi NOT be deported.
It's hard to research where he is today, because most inquiries end in just giving the trial results again. I also cannot find if he was expelled from Rutgers (Wei, too). I found a reference referring to him as an ex-Rutgers student, so perhaps he was expelled. I've also found that he seems to be doing I.T. in NYC, and living there, trying to play down his notorious past.

THE AFTERMATH: Beginning in the very next school year, a Rutgers University program was instituted to permit students to choose their dorm roommates, regardless of gender. Rutgers students planned a "Black Friday" event to commemorate and memorialize Clementi. As of one year later still, Rutgers had implemented many new programs to provide a more supportive environment for LGBTQ students, including new dormitory options and a new Center for Social Justice Education and LGBTQ Communities. At this point, students reported a much-improved campus atmosphere.
In 2011, Tyler Clementi's parents, Jane and Joseph Clementi—who had both left their church because of its teachings--established the Tyler Clementi Foundation, which focuses on promoting acceptance of LGBTQ teens, providing education against all forms of bullying including cyber bullying over the internet.
Also in 2011, the Point Foundation, the nation's largest scholarship-granting organization for LGBTQ students of merit, announced that it had created the Tyler Clementi Point Scholarship to honor his memory.
In the weeks following the suicide, schools near Ridgewood held vigils in memory of his death. At one school, students wore all black to mourn his death. Students at Hofstra University on Long Island gathered for a candlelight vigil; a similar vigil at Harvard College drew large crowds. In 2015, the Tyler Clementi Institute for Internet Safety, a legal institute to assist other victims of cyberbullying, was launched.

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This picture now hangs in his parents' home.

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Tyler's violin is now on display at the New-York Historical Society.

Buildings    In the case of jumping from man-made structures, we've seen only bridges so far, which seem to encompass the majority of such suicides. Let's take a quick look at buildings, including the Vessel. Jumping from buildings is surprisingly less frequent because tall buildings are often condo or office buildings not accessible to the general public, and because open-air areas of high buildings (such as rooftop restaurants or pools) are often surrounded by high walls that are built precisely to prevent suicides.

But as we saw, jumping makes up 20% of suicides in New York City and more than half of suicides in Hong Kong due to the prevalence of publicly accessible skyscrapers in the cities. However, we'll mention only two buildings, both in NYC.

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: I'm sure you know where we'll start, because it's become a meme. It's the Empire State Building (ESB). I've been to the top three times, all many years ago: once as an exploring teenager, once with Beverly, and once with some of Beverly's visiting relatives from Sweden.
Ever since it opened in 1933 its height has been celebrated, accentuated by its isolation from other tall structures. (But it long ago lost its height advantage and even 30 Hudson Yards now surpasses it.)
We now take for granted that the movie King Kong, with its pop culture iconic beast, is associated with the ESB. But realize that the film, which came out the same year, took advantage of the publicity and notoriety of the height of the ESB. With the ESB that much on the public mind, that could easily be where the meme started.
For instance, the ESB is commonly used for hypotheticals starting with: "if a person jumped off the ESB . . .", since that image seems to be in the public mind. It is true that, since construction started in 1929, more than 30 people have jumped from the ESB, most successfully. But given the number of bridge jumpers we've seen, that total is really quite small.
I remember when they added security. I now read it was in 1947, meaning I was 7 years old, but it impressed me. At the ESB, the 86th floor outdoor observation deck serves as the closest equivalent of a roof.

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I managed to find this picture showing both the original height of the barrier on top of the stone wall—at about head level--and the formidable overhead inward-pointing hooked extension of it. I also now find that the 1947 extension was added after five people tried to jump during a three-week span.

BOBST LIBRARY: The 12-story Bobst Library (O=OH) opened in 1973 as the main library at New York University (NYU) in Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan on the south side of Washington Square (Photo by Eden, Janine, and Jim). But we're not talking about jumpers from the roof. To my knowledge, that has never happened here.
I'm including the Bobst to show that the interior of a building can also involve jumper suicides. Architecturally, the library is noted for its huge indoor atrium starting with Floor 3 and going up to Floor 12. In late 2003, the atrium was the site of two suicides. In separate incidents, students jumped from the open-air crosswalks inside the atrium and fell to the marble floor below. After the second suicide, the university installed 2.4 m (8 ft)-high Plexiglas barricades on each level and along the stairways to prevent further jumping. But in 2009, a third student apparently nevertheless climbed over the barricade and jumped to his death from the tenth floor.
Finally, in 2012, the library added floor-to-ceiling laser-cut aluminum barriers to prevent any future suicide attempts. These enclosed the space but also allowed sunlight to shine thru in an intricate pattern. It's made of randomly perforated aluminum screens that evoke the zeros and ones of a digital waterfall. It's called the Bobst Pixel Veil (a word very evocative of Toronto's 2003 Luminous Veil). A spokesman said "It’s an example of making something a positive thing rather than a barrier thing", a concept also very parallel to Toronto. "The trick is to transform something to make it seem like you’re not in a cage." Take a look:

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The first link shows up close one of the stair cases. Click for further detail, and keep the Vessel's staircases in mind. The second link shows an angular view of the whole atrium, and the third is a straight-on view.
The Bobst is surely more parallel to the Vessel's situation than other structures we've discussed.

Personal Encounters with Suicide    Before encountering the Vessel suicides, I had encountered two others.

1) RICHMOND HILL: My first encounter was not with a jumper but with a hanging. When I was studying at Queens College in the late 1950s after graduating from Brooklyn Tech, I still lived at home in Hollis, Queens, and continued to be a commuter student. We subscribed to the former Long Island Daily Press (1821-1977), which was delivered in the late afternoon. One day I came across an article in the Press about a boy who had hanged himself in the family basement in Richmond Hill, Queens.

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On this Queens map, Hollis is in pink, low right of center; Richmond Hill is in light green, low left of center, not that far from Hollis; Queens College is in Flushing, in pink, top center.
What probably caught my attention was that he was a freshman at Brooklyn Tech, or was about to become one shortly, which means he would have been about 14. Then suddenly the family name, S., sounded familiar, as did the street address in Richmond Hill.
A few years earlier, I had gone with my mother to visit one of her distant friends, N.S., who took us on a tour of her house in Richmond Hill—her son was not at home. I don't remember most of the tour, but clearly remember when she took us down to the basement, because it had been converted at some point to an interesting-looking woodworking shop. In my mind's eye, I still picture seeing woodwork in every direction.

I brought the article to my mother, and she confirmed that that had to have been N.S.'s house. She called up some friends that she saw more frequently to confirm the story. And the tragedy became even sadder as to the people he left behind. The family was promoting the story that, since the son was interested in science, thus going to Tech, he had been experimenting with causing himself to black out, and he accidentally went too far. Thus it wasn't a suicide--he really didn't hang himself on purpose.
Of course, no one who heard the story believed it, and I doubt the family really did, either. If they were making themselves believe it, they were surely in deep denial. Suicide affects more than just the individual.
Tho I never saw the basement a second time, the image remains with me of that antique light bulb hanging from the basement ceiling, which is just where the 14-year-old was found hanging.

2) TRAVEMÜNDE: The other suicide I encountered was not a hanging but indeed a jumper, and the situation was much more graphic. It was also part of a trip, which is another reason why this posting is appropriate for this website. It took place in Travemünde in Germany on 8 June 2012, and I wrote about it in 2012/11 under the heading "An Anonymous Death". I've reread the travel diary and that posting, which refreshed my memory as to some details, which had become foggy. I also feel my opinion of what happened has changed, so I'm going to summarize that posting to both set the mood and explain what happened.

It was part of the Atlantic Isles trip in 2012, which more accurately should be called the Northeast Atlantic Isles. It was half by air and half by ship. I flew via Boston to the Azores, then to Madeira (repeat), and the Canaries (repeat). To connect the two parts of the trip, I flew to Hamburg for one night, then took the train via Lübeck to Travemünde, where, after another night, I boarded the late, lamented MS Deutschland for island stops in the Shetlands, Faroes, Iceland (repeat), and Greenland, then sailing back to Iceland to fly home.

https://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/75/Karte_Bahnstrecke_L%C3%BCbeck-L%C3%BCbeck-Travem%C3%BCnde_Strand.png

In fact, Travemünde, whose population is about 14,000, is today considered a suburb of Lübeck, and its full name is, in the German style, properly Lübeck-Travemünde. I really like this whole area and enjoyed this short visit (with the obvious exception). This map shows both the Trave River and rail route via Lübeck's Main Station, making three stops in Travemünde: L-T-Skandinavienkai (Scandinavia Quay), L-T-Hafen (Harbor), and L-T-Strand (Beach). The town has been a seaside resort since 1802, and is Germany's largest ferry port on the Baltic.
As usual, I'd checked out everything well in advance, and my goal was the last stop. You see where the Trave empties into the Ostsee (East Sea = Baltic). When Germany was divided, the border at this point ran along the Trave, and the Priwall Peninsula across the river was in East Germany.

https://www.maritim.de/fileadmin/_processed_/d/4/csm_anfahrt_trv_2_ddc8a91fd5.jpg

I'd booked a room in the Maritim-Strandhotel (Maritime Beach Hotel) (ma.ri.TIM, rhymes with "team"). You see how small the town is. Follow the rail line to the last stop, then take the ten-minute walk down Außenallee and Trelleborgstraße to the Maritim. I'd chosen the hotel (as usual) because of its location, near the station, near the cruise terminal on the river (in the Ortskern / Town Center in gray), and in a good walking area for sightseeing. Otherwise, I knew nothing about it. I did not know it was a high-rise until I actually got there (cue ominous music).
I arrived late that morning and my room was not yet ready, so I left my bag at the desk to see the town. Notice the beach area (Strand) on the last map. Now use this map:

http://hafentipps.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Travemuende-map.png

From the Maritim, I walked first to the northeast, including along the Strandpromenade. Then I walked past the hotel (more in a moment) to see the Alter Leuchtturm (Old Beacon)—picture to follow--and then a mere ten minutes further into town, to locate the Ostpreussenkai cruise terminal (since replaced) for the next morning. It was where the picture of the ship is on the map.

https://www.restaurant-seebaer.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Foto_6.jpg

However, a summer storm was brewing, and I lucked out by discovering the Seebär (Fur Seal) Restaurant (above) right on the Trave just in time to avoid a drenching by the flash storm. The river views were gorgeous.

Back to the mid-afternoon. As I walked past the hotel, I decided to retrieve my bag from the front desk and check in before going into town. It was fortuitous, because, as I wrote in 2012/11: After a few steps, I came across a group of about 8-10 people, standing around and looking at the hotel. I asked a young man: Was ist passiert? / What happened?, and he told me someone had fallen off a balcony. A woman nearby seemed to know quite a bit more, and she told me a woman had fallen from the 12th floor. I asked: Gefallen oder gesprungen? / Fallen or jumped?, and she said the woman had tried to sit on a balcony railing and had fallen. I never did discover how this woman knew more than the rest of the group. In any case, I then noticed up ahead a couple of police cars and fire rescue trucks.
Now understand that the Maritim lobby takes up the entire footprint of the building, but the tower rises over just one end of the lobby. Thus, from the balconies of the rooms you look down on the lobby roof, among other things. As I approached the hotel, maybe a half-dozen people were looking down from their balconies.
I continued to the lobby, got my bag and room key, and went up to the fifth floor. Down below, in the middle of a half-dozen rescue workers, a blanket covered the body from head to knees, but from the splayed legs, I could tell she was lying on her left side. From the slacks and flat shoes she was wearing, I suspected it was a younger woman, probably a teenager. It also occurred that teenagers are young and stupid enough to have less concern about danger and death, and could conceivably try sitting on a high railing. After a while they brought a gurney and carried the body away. There was no trace left on the tarred roof that anything had happened. I looked at the barrier where I was standing. Up to knee height, it was made of brick. Above that were three horizontal metal bars, one above the other, and she had probably, stupidly, tried to balance herself on the top one on her balcony.

But I now know a lot better. Why would that woman, a block away from the hotel, know the woman had fallen and not jumped? I now believe she might have been guessing. Altho I foolishly never inquired at the hotel, I now believe that what I saw the results of was no accident. It has to have been a jumper.
The Maritim (click) was built in 1974 and has 36 floors, with a roof restaurant on 36, a really amazing height for the area (Photo by Jürgen Howaldt). But the hotel is only on floors 4-13, while 14-35 has about 320 condos with the higher view. It's 119 m (390 ft) high; in 2019 it was made a National Historic Landmark.
Now that I think about it, the woman was further way from the tower for it to have been a straight drop. If she jumped from the 12th floor, she was not a condo owner, but a hotel guest who got herself a room on the second highest floor possible. More likely she took a flying leap, landing her further from the tower.

Note the shorter red-brick structure near the hotel. Here's a closer view of the (Alter) Leuchtturm Travemünde / (Old) Travemünde Beacon that we mentioned stopping by earlier (Photo by Holger.Ellgaard). It took its present shape in 1827, and is the oldest beacon structure in Germany, and is 31 m (102 ft) high. Since the hotel is so much higher, it was decommissioned, and the beacon is now on top of the hotel. Its height is 117 m (384 ft), making it the highest beacon in Europe.

This is the view of the Maritim and the town center (click) that I'd walked to (Photo by Foto Fitti). It really is a high rise. I find that it's not only the tallest building in town, it's noted as being the tallest building on the Baltic coast. We know that jumpers are attracted to landmarks, and so I think that woman found one.

Port Cities    To lighten the mood for a moment, let's do some word study about port cities named for their river. The below seems to happen only in two places. First is in England, and on the western part of its south coast exclusively, along the English Channel.
The word "mouth" is fully pronounced when talking about people or talking about the mouth of a river. But when it appears as a suffix in a city name at the mouth of a river, "-mouth" is unstressed and pronounced with a schwa: –mәth.

https://i2.wp.com/ontheworldmap.com/uk/england/map-of-southern-england.jpg

Click on this map and trace the western part of England's south coast along the English Channel from west to east and locate the following nine cities and towns:
Falmouth on the Fal (rhymes with "pal"); Plymouth on the Plym (one M is dropped in the spelling); Dartmouth on the Dart; Teignmouth (Tinmәth) on the Teign (rhymes with "teen"); Exmouth on the Exe (one E dropped in the spelling); Sidmouth on the Sid; Weymouth on the Wey; Bournemouth on the Bourne. The oddball seems to be Portsmouth, which is not on a river but on a large estuary that serves as a port.
It's odd that the practice stops after this on the eastern end of the coast. Copy-cat names of some of these exist in the US, and elsewhere: Plymouth, Portsmouth, Falmouth, Dartmouth. I suspect most people in New England are unaware of the river origin of most of these names.

https://www.welt-atlas.de/datenbank/karten/karte-1-891.gif

Why are we bringing this up now? Because the same custom is practiced along Germany's Baltic coast, tho to a lesser extent—I find only four examples. The word for a person's mouth is Mund, plural Münde (MÜN.dә). But there's a special variation for a river's mouth : Mündung, literally a "mouthing" of the river. But despite that fact, the cities named after rivers end their names with -münde, which is the plural form! I cannot explain this, as these rivers all have one single mouth.
Use Lübeck to help you find Travemünde on the Trave (TRA.vә). Rostock will guide you to Warnemünde on the Warnow (say VAR.noh, since German Baltic place names in –ow use the W as a lengthener, like H; thus OW=OH, as in the Berlin names Treptow and Pankow.)
East of Greifswald is Peenemünde on the Peene (PÉ.nә). Then move to the Polish border and immediately across it was the former German city of Swinemünde on the Swine (SVI.nә; I as in "taxi"). However it's now called in Polish Świnoujście on the Świna.

One more thought comes to mind, in France, but it's not the same. Look at this map of the basin of the Rhône River (Map by Ulamm). At the bottom, click on Arles, where the Rhône divides into Le Grand Rhône and Le Petit Rhône before entering the Mediterranean. Perhaps that's why the Département in which this entire area lies is called Bouches-du-Rhône (Mouths of the Rhône). Even tho Marseille lies just east of the mouth(s) of the Rhône River, there is no city at or near the mouth of the river that has a name using bouche(s) as a suffix.

3) THE VESSEL My most recent personal encounter with suicide involves the periods before and after my visit with Simi to the Vessel in 2021. Related Companies (and Ross) had been negligent in that they not only didn't follow Heatherwick Studio's urgings for more safety measures for the Vessel when it opened in 2019, they didn't even take into account the open-structure similarity of the nearby Bobst Library, with its suicides starting in 2003 and the erection of its Pixel Veil in 2012.

I'm referring to the periods of the Vessel when it was open to the public by phases, each phase expected to be a permanent solution. The First Phase started when it opened in March 2019. That's the time when Dave visited at least twice and climbed all over it to his heart's content. As he said, it was free, tho entry was limited by timed tickets to avoid overcrowding. Still, he said he never had to wait more than 20 minutes.
However, eleven months after the opening, in February 2020, a 19-year old man, a college student from New Jersey, jumped from the top of Vessel. I do not know any more details, but this brings to mind Tyler Clementi's jump from the bridge a decade earlier, in 2010.
Seven months after the first jumper, the second suicide at the Vessel was in late December 2020, when a 24-year old woman from Brooklyn jumped. Then the pace picked up. Less than a month later, on January 11, 2021, a 21-year old man became the third jumper at the Vessel within eleven months. This time the jumper was not local, but had traveled across the US from Texas, possibly because of the notoriety the Vessel was getting for jumping. We've noted that famous suicide sites attract more attempts. A few days later, the Vessel was indefinitely closed down, ending the First Phase.
Apparently then, with pressure from community leaders urging Related to install higher railings at the Vessel, Related instead talked to psychiatrists and others (perhaps voodoo witch doctors?) about how to reduce the potential for future suicides. The solution they came up with defined the Second Phase. They used the reasoning that jumping is usually a solo event, so if solo visitors were excluded, this would greatly improve the odds that a jumper would be admitted. To pay for extra security, all timed tickets at this point cost $10, and only groups of two or more would be admitted. The proviso was added that solo visitors would be assembled into small groups led by a guard.
I don't see how that would have prevented a potential suicide from stopping someone on the street and offering to pay for admission for both, then separating from his patsy and doing the deed. But that was the thinking that Related and Ross went with. It should now become clear why I asked Simi to join me on this first leg of my Mid-Manhattan Hudson Circuit—we had to be two.
We'll discuss in the next posting just how our crazy visit to the "High Line Spur & the Vessel" at Hudson Yards played out (synopsis: crazy, incredible heat; crazy arrangements for the crazy, tiny, glacially slow elevator—I was told to be the "invalid" with Simi as my "caretaker"; we saw only the top level, which was sufficient).
Simi and I were at the top of the Vessel on the afternoon of 29 June 2021. One month later, TO THE DAY, the fourth suicide took place, on the afternoon of 29 July 2021, when a 14-year-old boy jumped, also from the top level. The Second Phase had run for only two months, meaning Simi and I were there after only the first month of its reopening.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/07/29/nyregion/29nyvessel-1SWAP/29nyvessel-1SWAP-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp

https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/50255080223_9db15674ff_o-2048x1365.jpg

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/11b/d70/2e810b545c5cd5ae5bb52381609d23588b-vessel-hudson-yards.1x.rsocial.w1200.jpg

The first link is a photo by Jeenah Moon of the New York Times taken shortly after the fourth suicide, showing people walking past the site. The second link is the view from the Shed, also after the fourth suicide. The third link gives a clear view of the top levels. Even someone with acrophobia might have a hard time here; but you can imagine how it would attract jumpers.
Actually, the story is even worse. Because of the multiple-entry requirement, it turns out that the 14-year-old was with his mother, father, and grandmother, which is even more horrific, since, unlike with most suicides, his family was there to actually witness the aftermath. It also belies Related Properties' assertion that solos are potential suicides, but not those in groups.
Police sources said the teen had had a history of depression and had attempted suicide before. Under those circumstances, what was his family thinking by doing an outing of this kind? It's like going bar-hopping with a recovering alcoholic.
In a statement, Heatherwick Studio said that it was "distraught" by the news, adding that the studio and Related had explored several ideas to improve safety. Those ideas "required further rigorous tests," and the studio had yet to decide on one that would be "feasible in terms of engineering and installation. . . . We designed safety barriers for the Vessel a while back," said an employee, who was not authorized to speak publicly. "It’s now time to install these."
The community board said that some members had met with a suicide prevention expert, who suggested installing netting or raising the height of the glass barriers. Raising the barriers by seven or eight feet (2.1 – 2.4 m) would be enough, they said, and would still allow people to have a clear view of the city.
After the fourth death, the Vessel was again closed indefinitely. Stephen Ross said at the time he was considering closing the structure permanently. The lengthy period of closure in the last three-plus years from then to the present writing in September 2024 would be the Vessel's Third Phase.

While all the early news about the Vessel was front-page news for quite a while, it was only a small article on a back page of the Sunday New York Times on 14 April 2024 that brought up the latest news about safety measures being added, apparently indicating that a Fourth Phase would be starting late in 2024 (if not a bit later). While it's speculation, this turn of events could have to do with the fact mentioned in the last posting that in July 2024, Related announced that Ross would be stepping down as chairman.

The Times article reports that the Vessel with be fitted with mesh to stop potential jumpers. It says: The attraction will reopen once "floor-to-ceiling steel mesh" has been installed on several staircases . . . Although it was still closed, a careful look at its third floor showed an initial section of the upcoming changes: black mesh, resembling a fish net. . . . The steel mesh enclosures will be added to about half of the attraction’s traversable area, with barriers on four stairwells and adjoining platforms, Related Companies said. The first two levels will remain fully open, while the top level will stay closed.

Once it opens, the timed tickets will still be $10. I hope they straighten out the elevator situation. There are other indications that show that not just half but all the traversable area will be netted, but it's very difficult to get details, and any pictures I've found are very confusing, so I'm not including them.

Bottom line: I think the exterior of the Vessel is attractive, and the interior really wondrous. However, I'm wary about how Related is installing the safety measures. The netting sounds more like the temporary netting on the George Washington Bridge; the solution does not seem to be as spectacular as Toronto's Luminous Veil or the Bobst Library's Pixel Veil. I do not like the idea of "barriers on four stairwells" and am concerned about how that would prevent movement. And I continue to think personally that the top level that we visited is the main feature of the structure, and lament that that will be closed—presumably they couldn't figure out netting for it. I'm not very optimistic.