SUWANEE, Ga. — When it was built a hundred years ago, Settles Bridge carried early automobile traffic over the Chattahoochee River from Forsyth County to the Gwinnett County side, near Suwanee.
Since it closed in the 1950s it has become a decaying relic - and a sometimes dangerous attraction
"The idiot Olympics," is what Paul Durrence calls the yearly spectacle of Settles Bridge jumpers.
Durrence has paddled the Chattahoochee at Settles Bridge for years and says he's seen countless people make the illegal three-story jump from the rusted frame to the chilly river below.
"I don't think they understand mortality when they're 18 and 19 years old," Durrence said. In 2017, two people died jumping from Settles Bridge.
Over the winter, on the Gwinnett County side, the National Park Service built stone and timber roadblocks leading to the bridge - and built new signs warning against jumping. This week, the Park Service started tripling fines issued to violators.
"We were fining individuals out on the bridge a $300 fine. I'm not sure that's been much of a deterrent as we'd like it to be," said NPS Superintendent Bill Cox.
This week, Cox said NPS increased its fine to $1000 for people caught climbing on or jumping from Settles Bridge.
"My hope is we'll only have to do one or two of those. And then word will get around that it's not worth the risk," Cox said.
When 11Alive visited the NPS-run site on the Gwinnett side of the bridge on a cool weekday morning, there were no jumpers.
The Forsyth County side of Settles Bridge is harder to reach - through a thicket atop a cliff. Forsyth plans to build a wall structure blocking the bridge.