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A man threatening to jump off the Dumbarton Bridge on Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 11) has been taken safely into custody, a Menlo Park police spokeswoman said.
The California Highway Patrol received multiple reports at 2:30 p.m. of a man sitting on the rail of the bridge, CHP Sgt. Trent Cross said. A short time later, one of the man’s friends called the CHP and said that the man was going to jump, Cross said.
Traffic on the bridge was shut down in both directions, and a negotiating team from the Menlo Park Police Department responded to the scene, police spokeswoman Nicole Acker said.
The U.S. Coast Guard also sent out a 25-foot boat from Station San Francisco in case the man jumped, Lt. j.g. Laura Williams said.
The negotiating team initially had trouble getting through to the man, who was not allowing them to get closer than 20 feet to him, Acker said.
However, they were eventually able to talk the man off the rail, and he was safely taken into custody at 4:36 p.m., Acker said.
The roadway was being reopened as of 4:45 p.m., but major delays were expected on the bridge during the evening commute, CHP Officer Peter Van
Eckhardt said.
“I imagine it’s not going to be real pretty down there,” he said.