Police were waiting for a man to climb down from the West 17th Street bridge in Huntington Wednesday afternoon, Cabell County dispatchers said.
Dispatchers said they began receiving calls shortly before 3 p.m. about the man climbing over the safety rail on the bridge. Then, once city firefighters arrived on the scene, the man began to scale the metal framing of the bridge to the top of the structure.
Huntington police have shut down all traffic going onto the bridge, which crosses the Ohio River. The U.S. Coast Guard is preventing boats and barges from crossing underneath it.
Dispatchers said at about 9:45 p.m. that the man had moved several times between a catwalk underneath the bridge and then back to the top metal framing. Rescuers were unable to reach a ladder that stretches to the top of the bridge without risking their own safety.
There is no estimated time for when the bridge will reopen.