An unhinged 44-year-old man stripped naked, scaled the towering north tower of the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side, planted a bunch of flags and then jumped into the East River in broad daylight Sunday and somehow lived to tell about it.
The wild scene unfolded around 2:30 p.m. as shocked onlookers watched the guy climb high above the iconic span, affix multiple flags at the top and then peel off his clothes before taking the plunge.
NYPD Emergency Services Unit officers raced to the scene and desperately tried to talk the climber down. He wasn’t having it. Instead, the naked man leapt from the top of the historic bridge in front of stunned witnesses.
Video captured the chaotic moment: the man standing high on the concrete tower against a clear blue sky, then launching himself off into the air toward the water below. Emergency vehicles, including NYPD cruisers and ambulances, flooded the area as the drama unfolded.
Quick-thinking Harbor Unit cops pulled the man from the East River shortly after he hit the water. He was rushed to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, where he was listed in stable condition.
Police sources confirmed the bizarre sequence: the man scaled the north tower, erected the flags, ditched his clothes and jumped. Exactly what was written on the flags remains unclear.
The entire episode left New Yorkers shaking their heads once again at the latest bridge-related spectacle on one of the city’s most famous landmarks.
The jump was from the top of one of the Brooklyn Bridge’s massive stone towers, roughly 276–278 feet (about 84–85 meters) above the East River.
The two Gothic towers rise that high above mean high water. By comparison, the bridge’s roadway and pedestrian promenade sit much lower — typically around 127–135 feet above the water at mid-span. Jumping from the top of the tower is nearly twice as high as a typical roadway leap, resulting in impact speeds well over 80 mph. At that velocity, water hits like concrete.
Robert Emmet Odlum (May 19, 1885)
The first person known to jump from the bridge (from the roadway level). A swimming instructor from Washington, D.C., he hoped to prove that falling through the air itself was not fatal. A strong wind twisted him in mid-air; he struck the water at an angle with his feet and hip. He suffered massive internal injuries, briefly regained consciousness, and died about 40 minutes later.
Steve Brodie (July 23, 1886)
Claimed to have jumped from the roadway and survived, emerging with only side pain. The stunt made him instantly famous; he opened a Bowery saloon and the phrase “pulling a Brodie” entered the language for a reckless dare. Historians still debate whether he actually jumped or arranged for a dummy to be thrown while he swam out from a boat. The claim was never fully proven.
Larry Donovan (August 28, 1886)
The first confirmed survivor. He jumped from a higher point on the bridge than Brodie claimed, landed feet-first, and suffered only soreness in the chest. He went on to jump other bridges for fame and money but was killed two years later jumping from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in England.
Survivals from the lower roadway (~135 feet) have occurred occasionally over the decades — police have noted that a few people survive each year — but jumps from the actual tower tops remain far rarer and far more lethal. The 44-year-old man who leaped naked from the north tower on August 2, 2026, and was pulled out in stable condition is therefore an extreme outlier.
