State lawmakers have been officially asked to find $11 million to help pay for the Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier, according to reports.
The elected members of the Golden Gate Bridge Transportation District -- which oversees the finances of the bridge and decides where to put the toll money collected -- have also asked national legislators in Washington, D.C. for money: $44 million, to be exact.
Bridge officials said that the requested dollars are a "one-time expenditure that will solve the problem in perpetuity," the Marin Independent Journal reported.
There have been calls for a net or some other protective barrier that would prevent people from leaping off of the bridge to their deaths for years.
About 1,500 people have died in falls from the bridge since 1937. About two dozen people jump every year, the newspaper reported.
Congress members, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, said that as much as $44 million could be allocated toward the bridge barrier as part of a larger transportation bill, the newspaper reported.
The Golden Gate Bridge has seen more suicides than any other span in the world, according to proponents of the barrier.
