A 44-year-old Seattle man jumped off Deception Pass Bridge Saturday morning, reviving a decades-long conversation about ways to prevent people from taking their own lives at the scenic site.

According to Ed Wallace, a detective with the Island County Sheriff’s Office, the man sent a message to his wife in Seattle informing her of his location before jumping off the bridge just before 9 a.m.

Dispatch received several calls from the wife and witnesses who saw the man drop 180 feet into the water as they were visiting the park that morning.

As of Monday afternoon the man’s body has yet to be recovered, Wallace said, adding that the search ended after a 24-hour period.

Suicides are sadly not an uncommon occurrence at the bridge. While he couldn’t provide the number of people who have ended their lives at this location, Wallace said the Sheriff’s Office gets many calls about people committing or threatening to commit suicide there.

Upon learning about the last of a series of suicides and mental health episodes on the bridge, a community member on the Facebook group Whidbey Island Community asked fellow group members to share ideas for a possible petition.

Some suggested painting the walkways with positive messages, others suggested installing nets and protection similar to the fence on the Coupeville overpass. Others emphasized the need to support people experiencing mental health struggles before they become suicidal.

In 2018, former Jail Medical Director Yvette Fletcher had an emergency phone installed on the west side of the bridge. The phone dials 911 and is there to help people experiencing a mental health crisis or other emergencies in an area that lacks cell phone coverage.

While helpful, it may also not be enough to save the life of a suicidal person.

The bridge is managed by the Washington State Department of Transportation. According to RB McKeon, a communications manager at the agency, addressing the bridge’s popularity as a suicide destination isn’t as easy as sending crews to install a fence and a net.

The bridge, which was built between 1934 and 1935, was originally designed to accommodate a 15-ton truck. Its current design load, she said, is HL-96, meaning it could theoretically accommodate a 36-ton vehicle, according to a unit of measure converter.

Before any modification is approved, she wrote in an email, the existing load rating would have to be analyzed to determine whether the bridge could support additional weight. She compared a taller fence to a taller sail that catches more wind.

“It may not be the load rating that is impacted, but the elements supporting lateral loads might be impacted,” she wrote.

Deception Pass Bridge is also a historic site that would need to go through a long process in order to get necessary modifications.

First, the state legislature would need to allocate funding for a study of the bridge. WSDOT’s bridge office would analyze possible solutions and their potential structural impacts, leading to a possible final recommendation, McKeon wrote.

The recommendation would then be submitted to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which “engages in dialogue” with the agency, community members, service providers and legislators, she wrote. Once an agreement is reached, the next step is to get funding from the legislature for the design and construction phases.

It’s currently impossible to estimate the total cost of the project without an analysis suggesting the best solutions, McKeon said. And while public input is welcome, she cautioned that petitions might not lead to the desired outcome due to the lack of funding and uncertainty about what the bridge could or could not support.

While there are currently no funds or plans to make the bridge safer, there is some hope.

In 2011 for example, WSDOT built anti-suicide fencing on the Aurora Bridge in Seattle, which was one of the country’s most popular destinations for people seeking to end their lives. McKeon said it took four years and $4.8 million to complete the project.

State Sen. Ron Muzzall, who lost a friend to suicide at the bridge earlier this year, said he would like to cooperate with WSDOT to make it more difficult for people to take their own lives. After his personal loss, he tried to reach out to the agency in hopes to work together on a solution rather than simply “doing a legislative fix,” but has yet to hear back.

He worries the agency is not taking the issue seriously enough. He might bring his concerns to Olympia in 2025, he said. WSDOT could not respond to a request for comment by press time.

McKeon said the agency does not manage mental health related situations, but is open to conversations with community members and subject matter experts.

People experiencing suicidal feelings can call the 24-hour national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.