Kerry Davis (KD) and Ken Hopper (KH)

KD: We’re iron workers on the Golden Gate Bridge. We climb in places where nobody else really goes.

KH: It’s awesome. We get paid to climb around in the world’s biggest jungle gym.

KD: To the very top — 746 feet.

KH: You’re walking on this three-foot in diameter —

KD: —Cylinder.

KH: It looks like a pipe.

KD: Yeah, yeah.

KH: And you hang on to this cable, and the steeper it gets, the tighter you hang on.

KD: And the harder it is to climb.

KH: Yeah. We have to wear a full body harness, and we are tied off at all times.

KD: We just look out for one another. If something’s happening — going wrong — we have each other’s back. We do all the stuff that nobody else wants to do. One of the hardest things, I’d say, that we have to deal with — I guess we ought to talk about it at some point — people who come out to end their lives. For a time, if there was somebody over the rail —

KH: —That person was thinking about killing themselves.

KD: We were the — the first call. And we’d have to set up with our harnesses and go out. Sometimes we’d talk. Sometimes we’d just try to get ourselves close to that person, to actually grab them.

KH: I’ve gotten to the point where I walk up to them, and I just flat out and say it, ”you thinking about jumping off this bridge today?” And I’ve had them truly answer, ”yeah.”

KD: They might be in tears, or they might not be focused on anything else but the water. To see a person that’s that low, that’s really hard to see. I remember one time, a guy was talking to me. And he was a bartender in San Francisco, and he couldn’t find a job. And I asked him if I could climb over and talk to him. And he’s one of the guys that said, ”thank you.”

KH: There’s really hardly any closure. Many times we’re worried — well what happened to this guy? They took him to the hospital — is he ok? There are a lot of unanswered questions. But, you know, some call us the Guardians of the Gate, or the Angels of the Gate.

KD: Yeah.

KH: And that’s nice to hear.