A record number of people committed suicide last year by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. 
 
 Eighteen people plunged to their deaths from the 212-foot-high span in 2012, compared with the previous high of 13 jumpers in 2010, Port Authority records reveal. 
 
 There also were 43 attempted suicides from the bridge last year — an all-time high, too, law-enforcement sources said. 
 
 The 81-year-old bridge has been suicide central for decades. Its annual number of jumpers typically dwarfs the totals for all other local bridges combined, the sources said. 
 
 A veteran PA police official said the spike might be tied to rough economic times. 
 
 After a cluster of suicides in early May, PA police acting Chief of Department John Ryan ordered that police foot and car patrols be intensified. 
 
 Paul Nunziato, president of the PA Police Benevolent Association, has encouraged the agency to update the closed-circuit television system on the bridge. ||||| FORT LEE — A Port Authority police officer made a dramatic rescue of a man attempting to leap to his death from the George Washington Bridge Tuesday night. 
 
 Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said that around 10 p.m., Officer Jesse Turano received a report of a potentially suicidal male. 
 
 The man had just walked past a security guard stationed on the eastern end of the bridge and onto its north walkway, ignoring the guard's commands to stop. 
 
 Turano located the man, a 40-year-old Queens resident, and turned on the emergency light on his cruiser to get his attention. Instead of stopping, however, the man sped up, running along the walkway, seeingly intent on making the more than 200-foot plunge into the Hudson River. 
 
 "The man then grabbed the outer railing of the bridge and tried to jump, but Officer Turano grabbed him around the waist while the man was airborne, pulled him back onto the walkway and secured him with handcuffs," Coleman said. 
 
 Medical units were called to the scene, and the man was taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center for evaluation. ||||| FORT LEE — Preventing a man from jumping off the George Washington Bridge is an heroic feat, that’s for sure. 
 
 But when you do it over and over, the word "superhero" comes to mind. 
 
 Port Authority Police Officer Jesse Turano was patrolling the bridge in his cruiser at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, toward the end of his regular shift, when he got a call about a pedestrian who had ignored a security guard’s order not to venture onto the closed walkway on the north side of the bridge’s upper level. 
 
 Turano, a seven-year veteran assigned to the bridge since 2010, cruised the far-right lane, closest to the walkway, where first he encountered the female security guard and then the man who had ignored her order. 
 
 "I asked him to stop several times and he refused," said Turano, 33, who lives in West Milford. "I kept driving, and as I looked at him I got the sense that he was possibly emotionally disturbed. I could just tell by his mannerisms and his behavior." 
 
 In the nick of time, Turano chased down the would-be jumper, grabbed him around the waist and hauled him back to safety just as the man tried to fling himself over the railing. 
 
 Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said Wednesday that Turano has saved at least four other would-be jumpers on this bridge this year. 
 
 Turano shrugged off the figure and said it wasn’t something he and other officers kept track of. 
 
 Turano said he tried to stop the man by turning on his flashers, and eventually got out of his cruiser and climbed over the railing separating the bridge roadway from the walkway. 
 
 He said he followed the man as he walked at an increasingly brisk pace, his hands in his pockets, clearly trying to keep his distance from the officer. The water side of the walkway is bound by a three-foot masonry wall, topped by a metal railing extending up another couple of feet. 
 
 Turano ordered the man several times to take his hands out of his pockets. When he finally did, the officer rushed him. 
 
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 "All of a sudden he put his hands on the outer railing," Turano said. "He put his foot on the cement, and he went to kick off the cement, and I just jumped at him. I put my right arm around his waist, then I wrapped my left arm around him, and once I got a secure grip on him I used my body weight to pull him down onto the walkway. 
 
 "I handcuffed him for both of our safety, then called for back up." 
 
 Turano rode in the ambulance with the man to Bergen Regional Medical Center, where he was admitted for psychological evaluation. The man, who was not identified, told Turano he’d been out of work for three years and was tired of looking for a job. 
 
 "He said he had enough and he wanted to kill himself," Turano said. "He kept thanking me and I said the best thanks you can give me is if you get yourself some help." 
 
 The GWB had a record 43 suicide attempts in 2012, 18 of them resulting in death, the New York Post reported in January. 
 
 Bobby Egbert, a spokesman for the Port Authority Policemen’s Benevolent Association, called Turano "an exceptional example of the dedication to duty that these police officers have." 
 
 Turano took it in stride. 
 
 "I guess its always good if you save somebody’s life," he said. "But I don’t really think about it too much." 
 
 RELATED COVERAGE 
 
 • George Washington Bridge saw record 18 suicides in 2012 
 
 
 
 • Fatal leap from George Washington Bridge is first of 2013 
 
 
 

– Port Authority Police Officer Jesse Turano was patrolling the George Washington Bridge Tuesday night when he got a call about a man who had entered a closed walkway, even after a security guard ordered him not to. When he got there, Turano "could just tell by his mannerisms" that the man "was possibly emotionally disturbed," he tells the Star-Ledger. When the man put his hands on the outer railing and braced himself to kick off, Turano sprang into action. "Officer Turano grabbed him around the waist while the man was airborne [and] pulled him back onto the walkway," a Port Authority rep tells NJ.com. All of which might be amazing for some people, but not for Turano—it was the fifth time this year he has stopped a would-be jumper, says the rep. Turano shrugs off any suggestion that he is, in the Star-Ledger's words, a "superhero." "I guess it's always good if you save somebody's life," he says. "But I don't really think about it too much." The jumper, at least, seemed appreciative. "He kept thanking me and I said the best thanks you can give me is if you get yourself some help." The New York Post reports that 2012 saw a record number of suicides on the bridge: 18, as well as 43 attempts.