PHOTOS: NYPD Cops Rescue Man Who Gave Middle Finger Before Dangling from Brooklyn Bridge

New York City Police Officers rescued a man on Saturday just after 3:00 p.m. who was threatening to jump from the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that when reports came in about a man climbing on the outside part of the structure officers rushed to the scene.

The man apparently told the officers he was planning to jump off the bridge in order to kill himself and then gave one of them the middle finger. According to photos taken at the scene, at one point the barefoot man was dangling from the bridge while holding onto it with his hands:

Witnesses said the man had appeared “agitated.” When he pulled himself back up from dangling off the bridge, one Emergency Service Units (ESU) officer was able to get hold of him to pull him back from his dangerous position. Crews placed him in custody at 4:22 p.m.

Traffic moving westbound was stopped so that crews could get close to the man who had no charges filed against him due to the incident.

He was transported to Bellevue Hospital to undergo a psychological evaluation.

According to the City Of New York’s website, the Brooklyn Bridge links Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights. An average of over 107,000 vehicles, 32,000 pedestrians, and 4,000 cyclists use it daily:

The Brooklyn Bridge was designed by John A. Roebling. Construction began in 1869 and was completed in 1883. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River.

Because of the elevation of the span above the East River and the relatively low-lying shores, the rest of the bridge, sloping down to ground level, extends quite far inland on both sides of the river.

A similar instance happened in September when singer Jon Bon Jovi talked a woman out of jumping off a bridge in Nashville, Tennessee, when she was reportedly in a “moment of crisis,” Breitbart News reported.

In October, Seattle police officers saved a man experiencing a mental health crisis when he fell 25 feet onto train tracks. Officers on the lower platform ran over and pulled him away from an oncoming train in the nick of time, according to Breitbart News:

“Due to the rescue efforts by first responders, the man survived,” the Seattle Police Department said.