BURT

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Thursday, April 07, 2011 at 04:03:55 :

Independent Journal
Friday, December 11, 1953
Page 15

Man Steps Off Bridge Girder Despite Pleas

Without answering a California Highway Patrolman’s call to “Wait a minute,” a man stepped off a girder of the Golden Gate Bridge at 9 o’clock this morning plunging to his death in the bay 240 feet below.

He was tentatively identified as F. Y. Burt, about 60, of 69 Iris street and owner of the Burt Realty Co. in Redwood City, Patrolman Jack Symons said. His body was recovered about an hour later by the Coast Guard which was immediately notified.

Symons said Redwood City police informed him Burt had threatened suicide about two weeks ago, but no reason was given. They reported Burt was married but they had no information of his family.

An unidentified motorist reported a parked car to an attendant at the toll plaza, who alerted Symons. The patrolman found the car headed north in the outside lane about 400 feet south of the south bridge tower.

The man was standing on the girder below the bridge railing, and as Symons asked the man to wait, the man looked up, then stepped off without a word.

He is the 133rd man known to have leaped to his death from the bridge, according to the patrol. Investigation of the incident is being continued by the patrol.