The Vessel, a relatively new New York City tourism attraction re-opens today after nearly a year and a half, but no one will be allowed to visit the mammoth collection of ladders and landings alone as a suicide prevention measure.
A prominent feature of the city’s $25 billion Hudson Yards complex on the West Side, it was closed in January, 2020 after two suicides close together and three in less than a year. The 2,500 steps in 154 flights of stairs have only waist-high barriers and proved easy to climb over as well as easy to enjoy wide vistas of the city and the river.
Hudson Yards owner The Related Companies says that each of the suicides came alone, and that new measures should reduce the risk. The measures include requiring a companion, screening procedures and a tripled security force, not to mention a $10 ticket for the formerly free attraction. Not included in the plan, however, was raising the railings, a measure that has proven successful in suicide prevention elsewhere.
