Young Dad Ready to Leap from Golden Gate Bridge Saved by a ‘Miracle’

On a cold March morning in 2005, 22-year-old Kevin Berthia drove to the Golden Gate Bridge with one goal: to end his life.

“I told myself, ‘The water is my freedom. I’m ready,’” Berthia recalls. Drowning in medical bills after his premature daughter’s birth and newly unemployed, the Oakland native thought he had no way out.

Minutes later, he climbed over the railing and stood on a tiny metal pipe, 220 feet above the freezing San Francisco Bay. He started a silent countdown.

And then came a voice.

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Briggs, known to locals as the “Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge,” spotted Berthia teetering on the ledge. Over his 23-year career, Briggs would ultimately prevent more than 200 suicide attempts — but this was one of the most unforgettable.

“I told him, ‘Hi, my name’s Kevin. Is it okay if I come over and talk with you?’” Briggs remembers. “I wasn’t going to grab him or force him. I just wanted to listen.”

For the next 92 minutes, the two strangers talked about life, family, and pain.

“I’d never opened up to anyone like that before,” Berthia says. “I shared my deepest, darkest secrets with a man I didn’t even know.”

Finally, Berthia pulled himself back over the railing. “It felt like a miracle,” he says.

Berthia spent 11 days in a hospital, but recovery wasn’t instant. Seeing his photo on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle — clinging to the bridge — sent him deeper into depression.

“For eight years, I spiraled,” he admits. “I tried to end my life a dozen more times.”

Briggs, meanwhile, never reached out. “I didn’t want to be a trigger,” he says. “Most survivors want to forget that day ever happened.”

In 2013, everything changed. Briggs was being honored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in New York City and needed someone he had saved to present his award.

Briggs tracked down Berthia’s mother, who devised a clever plan to get her son to the ceremony. She told him he’d won an all-expenses-paid trip to New York from a radio contest.

When Berthia walked onstage and saw Briggs for the first time, he froze.

“I thought, ‘Wait — it was a cop who saved me?’” Berthia laughs now. “Being a Black man from Oakland, I’d never had good experiences with law enforcement. If I’d known back then, I wouldn’t have talked to him.”

But meeting Briggs face-to-face changed everything. “We’ve been brothers ever since,” says Briggs.

Today, Berthia, now 42, travels the country with Briggs, speaking to police cadets, students, and communities about mental health and suicide prevention.

“Kevin makes you think, and I make you feel,” Berthia tells audiences.

The pair’s message is simple: connection saves lives.

“It’s not about giving people a bunch of empty promises,” Briggs says. “It’s about listening. Just being there.”

Suicide remains a growing crisis in America. According to the CDC, more than 49,000 Americans died by suicide in 2023 — the highest number ever recorded.

For Berthia, that’s why sharing his story matters.

“Never in a million years did I think that my darkest day could help others,” he says. “But if my story can save one person, it’s worth it.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, text “STRENGTH” to 741741, or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org.