Girl On A Bridge
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This story occurs during the Spring of 1984 in downtown Fort Worth. I work the evening shift for the police department with a partner. We get a call there’s a girl on the IH-30 highway bridge getting ready to jump. We arrive on the scene and the white female, maybe in her late teens, is sitting on a ledge overlooking the highway. The young woman is dressed in blue jeans and a flowered blouse.
The bridge is a side street going over a major highway through downtown. There’s heavy traffic right below her traveling sixty and seventy miles per hour. She’s twenty-five feet above the freeway. If she jumps, she’s dead. The street crosses the highway and there’s a guard rail that a kid could crawl over. Go over the guard rail and there’s a ledge about four feet wide or so. Then two feet down there’s another ledge that’s only two feet wide. She was sitting on the edge of the two-foot ledge with her feet dangling. I was a single policeman, and my partner was married with two kids. I always volunteered for the dangerous stuff because I had nothing to lose. My partner would have none of it. He went in first more times than he should’ve. On this occasion, however, I was the one that went over the guard rail. At first, I stood behind the rail. I told her, “I just want to talk to you.”
She turned her head around had a slight smile. She was definitely in distress. The smile went away, and she appeared to start crying. She said something, but I couldn’t hear her. I went over the guardrail onto the first ledge to get closer and asked her again. She looked up and said, “If you come any closer, I will push myself forward.”
I stopped and asked, “What’s the problem. Whatever it is we can take care of it.”
“No, I’ve had enough. I’m going to just end this whole thing.”
I inched closer, “Before you do anything like that, please just tell me what’s wrong.”
She continued to cry, “Nobody wants me. No boys, my mom doesn’t want me around. I’m ugly and nobody likes me.”
I tried to relax, but it was difficult, “I think your sample market of who likes you is a little small. I think you’re beautiful. I’ve only known you for a few minutes but just the fact you’re upset over your situation means it can be fixed. It takes a brave person to come out on this ledge. I like brave people that are willing to go the extra mile. It also takes a brave person to crawl back up here and get some help.”
Apparently while we’ve been working this call, word has gotten out to the news media. In police work the news media is the enemy. The lieutenant shows up and interrupts the situation. I’m out on the ledge having a good dialogue going and my partner is standing behind the rail within arm’s reach of me. The Lieutenant comes up and says, “Hey! The news media is on the way. Wrap this damn thing up and get her off there.”
My partner turned around, “Yes sir, we’ll be done in a few minutes.”
The lieutenant walked off. I’m sure he didn’t want to be around if she jumped. Fortunately, the girl didn’t hear the boss and we continued to talk.
I told her, “I know you’re hurting. That’s part of life but what you’re thinking about is permanent. Don’t throw everything away forever because of a temporary situation. I don’t care what’s bothering you, we can fix it. You can have a long happy life. Look, come back with me and we’ll get you taken care of.”
She looked at me, “You promise?”
“Yes, I promise it’ll get better. I won’t let anything happen to you. Okay?”
She said, “My mom doesn’t want me. If she was here, she would probably push me off of this place.”
I was upset and hurting at this point, “I understand. I promise we can fix all this. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen fixed.”
She reached around and grabbed my hand. My partner put his hand around my gun belt from behind so she couldn’t accidentally pull me down with her if she fell. We came over the railing and she hugged me and started crying. We got to the hospital, and I walked her in. She was getting checked in and we were alone. I told her, “You are a beautiful person. Don’t ever think about doing this again. There’s an ebb and flow to life. You’re going to have great times and bad times. Find someone out there you can share those times with. I promise you it’s worth it. You’re worth it.” As with many calls I make you never know what happens years down the road. You wonder and it bothers you but then another crazy call comes along, and I’m totally involved in that situation. Sitting here years later I think about it and wonder how that girl turned out. Now, because of my age, I have time to reflect on many calls I made over the years and wish I knew what happened in the long run.
