FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's a bridge people travel to see for the incredible views. But on a summer day in 2018, Lauren Clements traveled to the Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge because she couldn't see a way forward.
"I remember walking past the blue get help sign they have up there, and I remember thinking to myself, 'they can’t help me, no one can,'" said Clements.
So Lauren climbed out on the ledge of the bridge, ready to do the unthinkable, when something unbelievable happened.
"I just remember seeing him out of the corner of my eye," said Clements.
A cyclist pedaling by recognized what was happening and jumped into action.
"I’m pretty sure he picked me up," she said.
The stranger even held her down, until first responders could arrive. It took Lauren years to truly appreciate what happened.
"Once I was able to not only feel thankful for being alive but see there’s hope for the future, I think that really made me feel more thankful for what he did," said Clements.
This is why, a few months ago, she decided she had to meet him. So Lauren made a TikTok.
"To this day, I don’t know who this man was," Clements said in the video. "I’m looking for a man, who I guess liked to bike, in the Nashville, Tennessee, area."
The clip went viral but nobody stepped forward. Then she got a suggestion from the comment section.
"A lot of people were like, have you tried requesting the 911 call?" she said.
Sure enough, Lauren heard his name, sent him an email which led to a reunion four years in the making.
"Hello! Is it OK if I hug you?" asked Clements.
"Of course. So good to see you," replied Elliott Lopes, Lauren's hero.
Lauren actually got Elliott a small gift — a keychain with the engraving I know our paths crossing was no accident. But the real gift was Lauren getting to say what she's been holding in for four years.
"I didn’t think I’d ever find you, I looked for so long," said Clements.
"I was in the right place in the right time, and I’m so glad you’re alive," said Lopes.
"I feel like, you know, I was given a second chance that day and I really want to use that second chance to make a difference," said Clements.
Lauren has already made that difference. Thankfully, the Natchez Trace Parkway bridge is no longer a destination when it comes to suicide attempts, in part, thanks to Lauren. She joined the group, the Natchez Trace Bridge Barrier Coalition, which fought to put large barriers up along the ledge.
"To see all that’s come from it, I can’t help but think God’s moving through you to love others and spread the gift you’ve been given -- that second chance," said Lopes.
At the time, Lauren thought she couldn't find a way forward. Now, she knows, it's to help others.
"I don’t know when but eventually, the darkness and the heaviness will lift and you will feel better," said Clements. "And I just think it’s so important to hear that other people have been there and gotten through it, and you can too."
Clements and Lopes say they plan to stay in touch.
Since its inception in the 1990s, the Natchez Trace Bridge evolved into a place where some have come to die by suicide.
As of 2022, 42 people died after stepping over a 32-inch railing and falling 155 feet.
The concrete structure — with its famous double arches — towers above Highway 96 outside of Franklin. The bridge itself opened in 1994, creating a final piece to Nashville on the 444-mile parkway that traces a path from Mississippi to Tennessee.
In late 2018, an advocacy group full of family members who lost loved ones at the bridge came together to urge the National Park Service to put barriers on the bridge. They argued the bridge's railing needed to be raised or have a prevention measure in place. This initiative landed in the Tennessee legislature, eventually a resolution going to Congress from the desk of Gov. Bill Lee in 2019.
Before any movement on the barriers took place, NPS installed a special call box on the bridge for those in crisis next to the bridge's overlook parking lot. Williamson County Sheriff's Officers also saved multiple lives on the bridge, according to body-worn cameras and incident reports from the agency.
Doing anything to the bridge to keep it from bearing too much weight became an engineering quagmire for attaching barriers to the structure. In 2020, the NPS hired an outside group to explore its feasibility.
Four years after the advocacy group's first intentions, a chain-link temporary barrier stands to protect those in crisis. A permanent barrier is in the design phase through the NPS.
