Officer Juan Guzman and Lt. Mike Hennessy, responded to the report of a man threatening to jump from the walkway along the eastbound lanes of the bridge’s upper level at 1:58 p.m. as they were reopening westbound lanes following a tractor-trailer accident, said a Port Authority spokesman, Joseph Pentangelo.

Guzman and Hennessy were participants in a course the New Jersey Crisis Intervention Training Center of Excellence had offered at the Bergen County Law and Public Safety Institute in Mahwah from Sept. 12-16. The center is comprised of law enforcement officials and mental health professionals, according to its website.

The man, a Manhattan resident whose name was not provided by authorities, was transported to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center to be evaluated, authorities said.

He had climbed over the railing on the walkway, just west of the tower on the New York side of the bridge, and was standing on a ledge overlooking the Hudson River when officers arrived, authorities said. Guzman “engaged the suicidal subject in conversation and established an immediate rapport,” Pentangelo said. Hennessey also participated in helping to talk the man out of jumping, authorities said.

Neither Guzman nor Hennessey were available to discuss the rescue on Friday night, Pentangelo said. The man was reported to the Port Authority police by a tractor-trailer driver who was travelling slowly in the westbound lanes because of the accident and fuel spill, authorities said.

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