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Officials close Rio Grande Gorge Bridge to foot traffic following teen's suicide
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TAOS — The sidewalks along the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge are usually thronged with tourists every day of the week.
Sightseers peer over the bridge’s 4-foot tall railings into the viridescent water coursing through the canyon 600 feet below. Couples and families stop to take selfies against some of the most dramatic backdrops New Mexico has to offer. People and their pets dart back and forth across the busy thoroughfare to take in the views.
But on Monday, the bridge was conspicuously empty — save for drivers thrumming across the 1,280-foot span, where a bundle of flowers and dozens of rosaries along the metal railings memorialized a local teen’s suspected suicide over the weekend.
It is the third such death to take place at the Rio Grande Gorge in three weeks and the sixth so far there this year, double the annual average of three cited by officials in previous years. Two people died at the bridge in suspected suicides on Sept. 2 and 6. Deputies successfully intervened after another person had driven to the bridge on Sept. 9 with reported intentions of self-harm.
The New Mexico Department of Health reported this month that suicides rose 9% in the state from 2023 to 2024, from from 470 to 512 deaths.
In response to the spike in suicides this year, New Mexico Department of Transportation Cabinet Secretary Rick Serna ordered the bridge be temporarily closed to foot traffic. Serna was acting at the request of Taos County Sheriff Steve Miera, whose staff has recovered the bodies of dozens of suicide victims from below the bridge since it opened in 1965.
“As long as we continue to do nothing, this problem will persist,” Miera told the Journal on Monday.
NMDOT, which manages the bridge, also hired a third security guard for the site, a vehicle to allow them to conduct patrols at both of its ends, and signage to notify drivers to not stop and barring pedestrians from walking along its sidewalks.
The bridge also has 10 crisis call boxes, though they’ve had maintenance problems in the past and Miera has questioned their efficacy in a genuine crisis, arguing that the bridge’s 4-foot railings don’t allow people time to reconsider their decision or for first responders to intervene.
In response to an inquiry by the Journal this week, department spokesperson Kristine Bustos-Mihelcic reiterated NMDOT’s commitment following the previous two suicides this month to updating a 2018 study examining additional suicide deterrents at the Gorge Bridge.
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“Secretary Serna and the NMDOT remain fully committed to working with local leaders, mental health professionals and community advocates in pursuit of effective, compassionate and meaningful solutions,” she wrote on behalf of the department.
As a light rain fell on Monday, many tourists lined up along the barbed-wire fence near a visitor’s center on the bridge’s west side. Despite posted and electronic traffic signs, a few still walked onto the bridge, where a guard patrolling in a truck ushered them off.
Mary Anne Seslar had traveled from Gallup with her husband to attend their son’s wedding and was disappointed that she couldn’t take her sister out to the center of the bridge to show her the sweeping views.
“I don’t think that increased security is going to stop anybody from doing what they want to do,” Seslar said. “I mean, if you want to make it harder for them, you know, build some more fences or something.”
Citing the example of Vista Bridge in Portland, Oregon, where the installation of barriers in 2013 proved effective at stopping suicides, Miera has long advocated for an “anti-climb fence” for the Gorge Bridge, but the state has never acted on the request, citing weight concerns for the 60-year-old structure.
He called recent talks with Cabinet Secretary Serna “productive.”
“They seem like they want to appear to want to find resolution to this,” Miera said. “So I’m hopeful. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline. org. The New Mexico Crisis and Access Line can also be reached at 855-662-7474 (855-NMCRISIS).
