A record number of people committed suicide last year by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.
Eighteen people plunged to their deaths from the 212-foot-high span in 2012, compared with the previous high of 13 jumpers in 2010, Port Authority records reveal.
There also were 43 attempted suicides from the bridge last year — an all-time high, too, law-enforcement sources said.
The 81-year-old bridge has been suicide central for decades. Its annual number of jumpers typically dwarfs the totals for all other local bridges combined, the sources said.
A veteran PA police official said the spike might be tied to rough economic times.
After a cluster of suicides in early May, PA police acting Chief of Department John Ryan ordered that police foot and car patrols be intensified.
Paul Nunziato, president of the PA Police Benevolent Association, has encouraged the agency to update the closed-circuit television system on the bridge.