Police Talk Man Down from GWB Railing

Port Authority police officers successfully talked a man down from the railing of the George Washington Bridge Tuesday afternoon, the second time in as many weeks that a potential suicide victim has been rescued on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway.

According to police, the 23-year-old male had stopped near the side of the bridge to take pictures of the river below with his cell phone camera when he told a friend via text message that he was planning to jump.

The friend called police around 3:38 Tuesday afternoon, and two officers found the man on the south walkway shortly afterward.

Officers James Cronin and Christopher Terranova were able to persuade the man to step away from the railing, department spokesman Steve Coleman said, and handcuffed him "for his own protection" after he stepped closer to them.

“We were able to talk him off the walkway without him trying to go over,” Coleman said.

Last week, a Port Authority officer made a last minute rescue of another man attempting suicide, that time reaching over the railing to grab him in midair.

The man was taken by ambulance to Metropolitan Hospital Center in New York City for evaluation.