In 2021, at the peak of COVID, the Vessel in Manhattan's Hudson Yards was shuttered after four suicides in 18 months. Now, the eye-catching 16-story landmark in New York City has reopened, with protections in place to keep anyone else from harming themselves, reports NBC News. The 150-foot-tall building, which first opened in 2019, now has four stairwells, and the platforms attached to them, that have been fitted with steel mesh to keep visitors from being able to fall or jump out. The mesh barrier was designed to keep views from the Vessel intact and not to mar its aesthetics.
The AP notes that the floor-to-ceiling netting is flexible enough so that people can still stick their phones out to take photos. "The pictures you can take from downstairs and upstairs, they are so beautiful," says a tourist from Brazil. The outlet notes that the building was first shut down after three suicides, and when it reopened, there was a new rule in place: No one could visit the Vessel alone. However, one other person managed to take their own life, and the landmark was closed down again. The first two levels of the Vessel are now open to the public; higher levels are open only in sections where the mesh barrier has been put in place.
The very top level remains closed. "The netting is good—not only for safety, but for people like myself that are afraid of heights," a visitor from New Jersey tells the AP. Another visitor tells NBC New York: "It's not a good thing, what happened, but I think that after what happened, it brought [the] awareness of mental health that we needed." Not everyone is thrilled with the changes, however. "The nets were in the way, and we couldn't even go all the way up to the top," a visitor from Argentina griped to the New York Post. (If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org.)
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