Golden Gate bridge climber in custody Puts focus on Golden Gate Bridge security

Members of the California Highway Patrol SWAT team come down off the South tower of the Golden Gate Bridge after a man who climbed the tower early Thursday evening was apprehended in the morning of Friday Aug. 3, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. The incident closed foot traffic for several hours and closed vehicle traffic for shorter periods of time causing huge backup on the road. less Members of the California Highway Patrol SWAT team come down off the South tower of the Golden Gate Bridge after a man who climbed the tower early Thursday evening was apprehended in the morning of Friday Aug. ... more Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Golden Gate bridge climber in custody 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

The security system protecting the Golden Gate Bridge from terrorist attacks is not impregnable, bridge officials acknowledged Friday after a suicidal man spent a windy, cold night perched at the very top of the bridge's south tower.

The man, whose name was not released, may have climbed painters' scaffolding near the middle of the span around 6:15 p.m. Thursday, swung around a fence designed to keep people from climbing the cable and scurried to the top of the south tower, which stands 500 feet above the roadway, police said. A little later, he reappeared and came close enough to speak with crisis negotiators.

The man, described by police as homeless and disturbed, told them he wanted to kill himself and then disappeared back into the fog around 8:15 p.m. Police did not know his whereabouts until 9:45 a.m. Friday, when a California Highway Patrol SWAT team located him at the top of the south tower. He was detained and taken to the psychiatric ward at San Francisco General Hospital for observation.

Bridge authorities said they will spend the next few days studying flaws in their security that allowed a man to get around a metal fence designed to keep people from climbing the suspension cables.

The 15-hour drama began when a passer-by saw the man and called police, said Sgt. Diane McDermott, a CHP spokeswoman. Sensors and cameras later picked him up as he climbed the cable.

"All those systems worked as planned. What didn't work was that someone got over, under or through the barriers," said Kary Witt, the bridge manager. "It certainly should be difficult for someone to do what he did, and it is difficult."

Takes more than 1 man

While security experts expressed concern that one man could so easily breach the bridge's defenses, they cautioned that the actions of one troubled man don't mean the bridge is more vulnerable to terrorist attack.

"It doesn't really concern me that much, because I want to know what he could have really done," said Henry Willis, associate director of the Rand Homeland Security and Defense Center. "Now, if he could have gotten an entire truck of explosives in there, that would be a different story. But he couldn't."

In fact, bridge and police officials said they very quickly determined that the man was not a terrorist threat but someone who might be suffering from a mental disorder, said Witt, who would not elaborate on how police officers reached that conclusion. Two hours into the episode, the man told negotiators he wanted to kill himself.

"You get an idea what you are dealing with based on all the inputs you are getting," Witt said. "The decisions that were made in terms of timing were very much based on well-informed law enforcement" information.

Not deemed a threat

Had the man been a threat, he would never have been allowed to hide on the bridge for more than 12 hours, Witt added.

"Time tends to be on our side" when someone is threatening to commit suicide, McDermott said.

"If someone comes up to jump, they usually do it immediately or wait - unless there's a confrontation," she added.

Authorities twice closed all lanes on the bridge for 10 minutes while they swept each tower looking for the man, snarling traffic at the height of the morning commute. The north tower was searched at 8:30 a.m. and the south tower at 9:40 a.m. The SWAT team used the tower elevators to reach the top, and each time waited for fog around the towers to clear enough for them to see. The pedestrian walkways were closed until the man was detained, and cyclists and pedestrians were shuttled across the bridge.

Appropriate response

Experts agreed that while it wasn't quick, the police response was appropriate.

But the man shouldn't have been able to get onto the suspension cables in the first place, said Rick Smith, a 25-year veteran of the FBI who now runs a private security firm in San Francisco.

"It begs the question about the security of the bridge, that he was able to get up there in the first place," Smith said.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District has received $2.9 million in Homeland Security grants and awards to bolster security, according to state records.

Tower trespassing was common before 9/11, including one incident in 1996 when actor Woody Harrelson and eight other environmental activists scaled the north tower and unfurled banners protesting redwood logging in Humboldt County.

In 2008, three protesters scaled the cables and hung "Free Tibet" banners 150 feet over traffic three days before runners brought the summer Olympic torch through town.

Willis, the homeland security researcher with the Rand Corp., said fences and security cameras aren't intended to be impregnable barriers in the first place. Active intelligence work is the best defense and is more important than fences and guns, he said.

"Rarely is it hard security that disrupts a plot," Willis said. "You don't see people getting caught in the fences, you see it deterring people in the first place. Things like fences and cameras do work, but not because they catch people, because they stop people from wanting to attack."

Security is difficult

Bridges, especially ones with walkways like the Golden Gate, are tough to secure totally, said Kelly Huston, a spokesman for the state Emergency Management Agency, which oversees security efforts.

"The public's access and enjoyment has to be balanced against the restrictive protective measures that need to be considered," he said. "You could put up fences all around the bridge, but that really turns that landmark into an icon for security as opposed to a national landmark."