UPDATED — 21-year-old woman dies after fall from Eighth Street bridge in Port Angeles

Published 12:01 am Saturday, October 11, 2014

PORT ANGELES — A 21-year-old Port Angeles woman fell to her death from the eastern Eighth Street bridge Saturday morning, police said.

Police were withholding the women’s name Saturday afternoon because some members of her family had not been notified, Police Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck said.

A bicyclist reported the fall at 10:26 a.m.

The women plunged off the towering bridge that spans a wide ravine into a remote area off Valley Street.

Roggenbuck said the fall appears to have been a deliberate act.

“There was a witness,” he said. “It does not appear to be an accident, that’s for sure.”

No suicide note

Police found no suicide note on the bridge or the women’s body.

The bridge over Valley Creek is 98 feet tall at its highest point.

In July 2012, a 20-year-old Port Angeles woman jumped to her death from the western Eighth Street bridge into the Tumwater Creek ravine.

A 19-year-old Port Angeles man jumped to his death from the eastern bridge in April 2009.

The twin bridges opened in February 2009, replacing a pair of trestle-like spans that were built in 1936 to carry a state highway that since has been turned over to the city.

“Over the course of the last few years, we’ve actually talked a few people off the bridge,” Roggenbuck said.

Police have also intercepted people who have made suicidal threats about the bridge before they arrived at either of the spans, Roggenbuck added.