Port Authority cops stopped two people from jumping off the George Washington Bridge — one a despondent transgender woman from the Middle East — in a span of just 15 minutes Wednesday morning, officials said.
The officers on “suicide patrol” monitoring the pedestrian walkway to the Hudson River span spotted a 56-year-old Brooklyn man standing on the south walk by the New York tower at about 7:25 a.m., officials said.
He told them he was planning to jump off the bridge, but they dissuaded him from the deed and took the man into custody. He was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center for psychiatric evaluation, said Port Authority spokesman Joe Pentangelo.
Fifteen minutes later, Port Authority cops received a report from police in Fort Lee, N.J., saying a 17-year-old transgender woman was heading to the bridge to kill herself, officials said.
Sources said the victim had traveled to the U.S. from Kuwait looking for a more tolerant community, but found none.
Instead, she found the George Washington Bridge — and a way to end it all.
Luckily, she also found an understanding operator when she opened up a suicide prevention call box that connected her to a crisis counselor.
The counselor flagged the Port Authority police, who found the teen in the center of the bridge on the south walk, officials said. Cops talked with her some more and put her in an awaiting ambulance, officials said.
Wednesday’s back-to-back saves were the latest in a long line of rescues.
Since 2014, Port Authority cops have saved 230 people intent on jumping off the GW Bridge, according to officials.
A dozen people jumped to their deaths off the popular span in 2016 — down from 18 victims the year before, officials said. Seventy people were saved from jumping by Port Authority cops last year, down from 86 people pulled to safety in 2015.
