Sixteen-year-old Kenneth Jones and his friends were enjoying a beautiful spring day by hanging out at the playground in Elizabeth Park.
Suddenly, they looked up and realized a woman was standing on the edge of the All-America Bridge above them.
She jumped.
Jones heard his friends gasp as they watched the 60-year-old woman plummet to her death, crashing through the building below. He recalls thinking she looked like a falling bird.
''It wasn't a good day anymore,'' said Jones, now 37 and an Akron councilman for Ward 5, which includes the neighborhood below the bridge.
This event in 1988 left an impression on Jones, who has had an aversion to the bridge ever since.
Jones isn't alone. Others in the Akron area have had life-or-death brushes with the bridge that most refer to as the Y-Bridge. They are excited that Akron — after years of urging from the community — soon will add a fence to the bridge. They hope it no longer will need to be called the ''Suicide Bridge.''
Critics question the estimated $1.5 million price tag for the fence, which is part of a larger, $6.4 million project to refurbish the 27-year-old bridge. Work on the project, which will be paid with federal stimulus funds, is expected to begin in the spring.
For those whose lives have been touched by the bridge, the expense will be well worth it.
A couple's sorrow
The last time Carolyn Conley saw her adopted son alive, she picked him up at a coffee shop in West Akron.
Kevin, 20, whom his parents say was an average kid until drugs and depression changed that, was quiet on the short ride.
''Let us help you,'' Carolyn pleaded as her son got out of the car.
''You don't understand,'' he replied, closing the door and walking away.
Before the month was out, Kevin had jumped to his death from the Y-Bridge.
Carolyn Conley and her husband, Bob, have led the quest for a fence on the Y-Bridge since losing Kevin in March 2006.
''We're not embarrassed,'' Carolyn said. ''Our son was mentally ill and hurt himself. We wanted to make the best out of his memory.''
The Conleys, both Akron teachers, briefly considered filing a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city, seeking enough damages to pay for a fence on the bridge.
''I realized it would never get done that way,'' Bob said. ''Instead of roadblocks, we wanted to find ways to get it done.''
Twenty-nine people have died by suicide off the Y-Bridge since 1997, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office, which began compiling computerized records then.
Most were men. They ranged in age from their early 20s to early 70s. About half were from Akron; others hailed from nearby cities Barberton, Norton and Hudson, or more-distant communities like Hartville, Avon Lake and Streetsboro.
Nine have jumped since Kevin's death.
On the Monday after each jump, the Conleys went to the Akron City Council meeting. They handed council members cards with a smiling picture of Kevin and the message, ''Fence the Y-Bridge for our citizens' safety.''
The couple, who has another adopted son, was elated to hear that Akron had been awarded stimulus funds for a fence and other bridge improvements. The fence will be made of steel, with small, diamond-shaped openings too small for climbing.
Carolyn gets angry when she hears people talking about the fence being a waste. She said people might not understand that if the bridge were built today, a fence would be required.
She is working on a book detailing her family's struggles, which she hopes will help other parents facing similar problems. She's calling it, A Temporary Moment, which is what many say suicide is.
''There will be a certain amount of people who go through with suicide — no matter what,'' she said.
''Some attempt it and then realize they don't want to die. Maybe Kevin thought that once he let go — and there was no way to help him.''
Akron police respond
Akron police regularly respond to possible jumpers on the Y-Bridge. Often they convince people not to jump.
Officer William Lagasse is among the few officers who talked a man off the bridge — only to have him later return and jump.
On an evening in early June, Lagasse arrived at the bridge to find Officer Roger Meyers talking to a Cuyahoga Falls man sitting on the bridge, holding its railing. Police had blocked traffic going north and south.
When the man mentioned he wanted a cigarette, Lagasse bought him a pack of Marlboros and a bottle of water. He and Meyers tried to use the cigarettes to entice the man away from the edge.
The man told the officers he was a heroin addict, though he said he had been sober for two weeks. He said he had a strained relationship with his family. He complained about being in pain from a broken leg.
People standing below the bridge yelled, ''Jump!''
''F--- off!'' the man yelled back.
Lagasse and Meyers, who were at the end of their shifts, promised the man they would go to the hospital and stay with him while he got the help he needed.
That's just what they did when the man came over the railing after about 21/2 hours. Meyers stayed with him at Akron General Medical Center for about an hour and a half, while Lagasse remained by his side through the night.
About 2 a.m., the man had gotten the medical treatment he needed and was released to Portage Path Behavioral Health. Lagasse gave the man the cigarettes and told him he would be tied up in court from noon to 3 p.m. the next day but would visit him afterward.
When Lagasse was in court about 2:30 p.m., he heard that a man had jumped off the bridge.
''My first thought was, 'I hope it wasn't him,' '' Lagasse said.
He found out it was.
''I felt bad I didn't get up to see him sooner,'' he said. ''I still feel bad about it.''
Lagasse talked to Meyers, other officers and his wife, who told him he had done all he could.
''They helped me realize there's only so much we can do,'' Lagasse said.
Akron police responded to more than 570 possible jumpers on the Y-Bridge in the past 12 years, or an average of about five calls per month. Several officers and paramedics are dispatched to each call, resulting in a considerable expense to the city.
Lagasse said officers, some who have put their lives at risk to save would-be jumpers, are pleased about the fence being added.
''It will stop that from being a spot where people commit suicide,'' he said.
As Lagasse sat with the man in the hospital, he said he asked him, ''Why the Y-Bridge?''
''Where else would you go?'' the man asked.
Therapists frustrated
Counselor David Brown regularly hears about the Y-Bridge from his clients at Portage Path Behavioral Health in Barberton.
A few times a week, a client says to him, ''I feel like jumping off the Y-Bridge.''
Brown says he's not alone. He said other local therapists have clients who are depressed and mention the Y-Bridge.
''It's frustrating that they have a place to go and readily kill themselves,'' Brown said.
Brown, a counselor for 20 years, had two clients jump off the Y-Bridge. They were young men with drug and alcohol problems in the middle of breakups. Neither talked about killing himself. Both simply went to the bridge and jumped.
''It was a complete shock,'' Brown said. ''I couldn't believe it. I have a big case load. At any time, I have five to 10 clients in crisis. These were not . . . I didn't know they needed additional help.''
At the request of the mother of one of his clients who jumped, Brown compiled research in 2007 on what happens when bridges are fenced. He shared the information with Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and other city leaders.
Brown said nine studies in the United States and other countries showed adding a fence to a well-known ''suicide bridge'' decreased the overall suicide rate in that area.
Some have argued that when workers add the fence to the Y-Bridge, people will jump off the high-level bridge leading into Cuyahoga Falls or from the state Route 8 bridge.
But Brown said studies have found that most people won't simply jump off a different bridge or kill themselves in another manner. He said the impulse to commit suicide is temporary, so a barrier to the method of choice often makes a difference.
''I believe it will drop down to very few — maybe zero — suicides on that bridge,'' Brown said of the Y-Bridge. ''You won't hear about people coming to Akron to kill themselves.''
One person jumped off the high-level bridge this year — the first suicide on this bridge since 1997. No one has jumped from the Route 8 bridge since 1997, according to the medical examiner's office.
Brown said each bridge suicide affects other people's lives. He said a family member of one of his clients who jumped from the bridge killed himself a year later.
Brown said researchers talk about ''target bridges,'' or well-known suicide locations. He said the Y-Bridge has ''definitely become one.''
Brown, who lives in Stow and regularly drives over the Y-Bridge will be relieved when the fence is added.
''I have never driven across without thinking about the people who were lost there,'' he said. ''It will be a big relief to not worry about it. Taking away a big method — that's the way to go.''
View of bridge changes
Jones, the Akron councilman, remembers being excited when the crumbling Viaduct bridge was torn down.
He and his friends would see who would walk the farthest out on the new Y-Bridge as it was being built to replace the old bridge.
''After we saw the woman fall, we didn't want to get close to the bridge,'' he said, adding that he has tried to avoid crossing the bridge as much as possible.
Three years ago, a friend of Jones' jumped off the bridge.
''It was unbelievable,'' he said. ''It was a real bad day.''
When Jones rode his bike over the bridge for the first time — two years ago in the LeBron James bikeathon — he panicked.
''I was struggling. Hyperventilating. Terrified,'' he said. ''I was so relieved to get off that bridge.''
When Jones was appointed to City Council in March 2008, he joined Councilman Jim Shealey, his Ward 5 predecessor, in pushing for a fence for the bridge. He wasn't picky about aesthetics. Barbed wire would have been fine.
''As long as nobody else jumped,'' said Jones, a detention officer for Summit County Juvenile Court.
Jones got upset with some of his fellow council members, who weren't in favor of the fence because of the expense and how it didn't directly affect their constituents.
''I told them, 'I've seen it. I know a person who jumped,' '' he said. ''This is not about politics. It's not about anything but the right thing to do.''
Jones said the council members who previously questioned the project supported it when Akron got approved in March for stimulus funds to cover the cost.
Not everyone is behind the project, though. Some residents question why Akron is spending money on the bridge rather than using the funds for other expenses, like hiring more police officers or bringing back laid-off firefighters.
Jones said people might not realize the stimulus money can be used only for the bridge project and can't be applied to operating expenses.
When the fence is installed, Jones thinks he'll be able to walk or bike across the bridge without panicking. He said he will be relieved for people like the Conleys who lost someone close to them.
''It's just a huge gorilla off our backs,'' he said. ''It's been a long time coming.''
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.
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