CAÑON CITY – Jay Valusek stared at “that damned railing” for hours that bled into days after his beloved 28-year-old daughter jumped in 2018 from atop the metal edge of the Royal Gorge Bridge to her death 956 feet below.

Valusek’s vision blurred and then refocused as he pictured his precious Elizabeth Anne Valusek, who went by Beth, perched there in her final moments of this life and determined to find out what comes next.

A few years ago, while the Longmont resident made his usual two-and-a-half-hour drive to the Royal Gorge Bridge in Cañon City to mark the July 18 anniversary of his child’s passing, Valusek noticed something was different. The railing he had memorized and agonized over had changed.

New security fencing had been installed facing observers on the bridge.

The old railing was protected and essentially made inaccessible by onlookers, as were the containment structure’s lower horizonal beams that had seemed like unfortunate toeholds.

And the height has been raised a few inches to 53 inches tall, said Denny Dore, marketing manager for The Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, which is operated by the Royal Gorge Company of Colorado.

“The old railing was almost an invitation to jump -– a child could have gotten over,” Valusek said.

The new, anti-climb design is meant to stop or deter people from vaulting over the protective fencing and into the 80-story-high abyss.

Beth Valusek and up to 35 others are known to have died by suicide at the Royal Gorge Bridge since 1995, according to statistics from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. But the latest safety additions seem to be working, with marked declines in deaths by suicide.

From 2022 to 2024, the Fremont County Coroner reported no suicide deaths referencing the words “royal” or “gorge” or “bridge” for each of those years, state data shows.

Zero deaths in a one-year span hadn’t been seen since 1995, when the coroner’s office began mentioning such key words in causes of deaths. No suicide fatalities were recorded in 1995, 1996 and 1997 – though it’s possible there were some that were not officially documented.

On average, a few suicide deaths have occurred at the Royal Gorge each year, with the highest being nine deaths over 2016-2018 and six fatalities during the pandemic years of 2019-2021, according to state data. The department did not provide annual suicide deaths at the bridge to protect privacy, said Kirk Bol, manager of the vital statistics program.

“When it happens, it’s a terrible tragedy, and we’ll continue to do our best to make sure it’s as safe as possible for everybody,” Dore said.

The most recent security elements, including metal reinforcements to further bolster the outer perimeter, were made after a 2021 state inspection, he said.

The bridge operator requested permission from the city to modify the railing and completed the work around 2022, said Kristy Gotham, spokeswoman for the city of Cañon City, which owns the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. The bridge company also paid for the improvements, she said.

He said some changes are proprietary and not made public to prevent people from circumventing the features that are intended to protect them.

The idea of installing a safety net for the bridge had been discussed in the past, but he believes it was determined that such a feature would not be feasible and too dangerous to install at the Royal Gorge.

Reduction in deaths big news

The decrease in suicide deaths seemed like big news, Valusek thought. But he said he was surprised that nobody seemed to know about the extra prevention measures; he couldn’t find anything about the changes at the Royal Gorge, the nation’s highest suspension bridge, on the omniscient internet.

After last summer’s seventh anniversary of Beth’s passing, Valusek decided to undertake a personal quest to find out and make known what’s been going on.

He said he was inspired by recent news reports of a dramatic decrease in suicide fatalities in 2024 from the nation’s deadliest bridge, the Golden Gate in San Francisco, which has had some 2,000 suicide deaths since its 1937 opening.

A steel suicide prevention net spanning the entire 1.7-mile structure took six years to install and was completed on Jan. 1, 2024, the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District announced. The $224 million cost was paid for by state and federal funds, according to the transportation district.

But as at the Golden Gate Bridge, the Royal Gorge Bridge’s barriers are not infallible. Last June, a young man took his life at the Royal Gorge Bridge, according to a relative’s account as told to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office. The state hasn’t finished compiling numbers from last year, said Bol, so he could not confirm that. But Valusek could. He said the man’s mother spoke to him about her son’s suicide.

At the Golden Gate Bridge, eight people died by suicide in 2024 after the net went up, representing a 73% decrease, and last year’s four suicide deaths at the Golden Gate Bridge reflected an even larger decrease of 87%.

With evidence that advanced safety practices prevent suicide bridge deaths, Valusek wonders, “Why weren’t these made sooner?”

Because one thing Valusek has learned in studying suicide to the point that the health coach now also defines himself as a suicidologist, is that jumping off a bridge – as compared with the more common methods of using a gun, overdosing or hanging one’s-self – requires a lot of research and planning on the part of people thinking about ending it all.

His daughter traveled 12,000 miles from her Peace Corps assignment in Mozambique to Denver International Airport, where she rented a car, drove to a motel in Cañon City and woke up the next morning to arrive as the first visitor at the Royal Gorge. Her rental car was the only remaining guest vehicle in the parking lot at closing time, and her body eventually was discovered at the bottom of the canyon.

Physical barriers at places such as bridges and tall buildings are a relatively recent development, said Dr. Jill Harkavy-Friedman, senior vice president of research and leader of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s research program.

While locations such as the Golden Gate Bridge for years have had signs and emergency call phones for immediate assistance in times of crisis, over the past few decades there’s been more awareness about and advocacy for safety nets and preventive blockades, she said, because they work.

“We know that barriers save lives; it is one of the most effective ways to prevent suicide,” she said.

Her research and that of other professionals concludes that the more an area of height is made inaccessible, the more people who are thinking of taking their lives are less likely to do so.

“People do not switch from one place to another because of the way suicidal thinking works, in part,” Harkavy-Friedman said in a phone interview from New York City. “At a time of a suicide attempt, people’s decision-making is less flexible; they don’t have access to their usual coping. If you put up a barrier, they most likely will not change to an alternative method. With time and space, there’s opportunity for intervention and the crisis to deescalate.”

Therefore, “Anything keeping them from having access to height will save lives.”

The Royal Gorge Company of Colorado continually improves safety at the 360-acre amusement park, Dore said. Changes occur every year, he said, including replacing 300 worn planks that form the 18-foot-wide walkway that stretches a length of 1,260 feet and is suspended in air by two 300-ton cables.

For years, park rangers have routinely patrolled the bridge by foot, vehicle and electric cart, looking for indications that someone might be experiencing mental distress, Dore said. They check for at-risk behavior during business hours and also when the park is closed.

“Rangers and staff are trained in procedures to prevent issues and keep everybody safe,” he said.

Emergency 911 logs Valusek obtained last year indicate that the number of reported suicide threats, attempts and/or completions at the Royal Gorge decreased only recently, from a high of nine calls in both 2021 and 2023 to four in 2024 and three in 2023.

“Even though they’ve dramatically cut suicides there, they haven’t stopped people thinking about it from coming because no one knows about the changes,” Valusek said.

Dore said he could not speak to what had been done under previous staff in terms of promoting the bridge’s added safety measures.

Bridge mechanisms, fencing and cables are regularly inspected by third-party engineers as well as the Colorado Department of Transportation, he added.

The same goes for the amusement park’s other attractions including a gondola ride, which this year is adding two glass-bottomed cars, a zipline that scoots across a section of the canyon, a rock-climbing wall, a giant swing known as the Skycoaster and a privately owned and operated train ride adventure.

The Royal Gorge Bridge opened in 1929, and in 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it, “One of the finest scenic spots in the whole of the United States.”

A wildfire in June of 2013 destroyed 90% of the park’s 52 structures, took five days to contain and cost $30 million to rebuild. The bridge survived, however, losing just 32 of its wooden planks. The restored park reopened in May 2015.

Views of the San Juan mountain range and a dizzying glimpse of the Arkansas River below draw about 300,000 visitors per year to the park.

It’s considered Fremont County’s top tourist attraction and is rated as such by several online sites. The park is so important to the region’s economic base that an image of the bridge is used in the logo for the city of Cañon City.

Whether further suicide prevention tools will be incorporated at the Royal Gorge in the future is unknown, as the city is considering offering the management, operations and maintenance contract to a new operator.

Cañon City officials have been in negotiations since Nov. 17 with a company called CMBH Partners, Gotham said. It’s headquartered in Dallas and registered as a Colorado limited-liability corporation in April 2025, records show.

A request for proposals was issued last September and produced four bidders, according to the Colorado Bid Network. CMBH Partners submitted a bid of $37.7 million. The existing bridge operator, The Royal Gorge Company of Colorado, submitted the most expensive bid at $187.4 million.

The current 25-year contract expires Oct. 1, Dore said. Cañon City’s City Council held a closed-door executive session on Jan. 26 to discuss the negotiations.

Harkavy-Friedman reminds people that anyone can have a positive effect on someone who might be struggling mentally.

“If you see someone in distress, asking them ‘How are you?’ or ‘Are you OK?’ can save a life during that crisis moment,” she said. “I think people are afraid to do that, but it can be very helpful.”

Anyone wanting to speak with someone immediately about mental distress can dial 988 from any phone or text 741741 to reach the crisis hotline.