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Tourist climbs to top of Brooklyn Bridge, gets arrested

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A tourist from Moscow climbed to the top of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday and took photos with his iPhone before being arrested, police said.

Yaroslav Kolchin, 24, walked up a support beam connected to one of the bridge’s two towers, reached the top of the tower, walked back and forth on the landing and took pictures, the New York Police Department said.

Then, police said, he “descended the tower safely the same way he went up” and was taken into custody about 12:38 p.m.

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He didn’t cause any damage or try to take anything from the bridge, police said.

Kolchin said he climbed the bridge for fun, according to a document from the Kings County district attorney’s office.

A police officer said that he saw Kolchin on top of the bridge’s Brooklyn-side tower beyond the suicide gate and that the stunt drew a crowd, with “a multitude of onlookers” at ground level directly below the climber, the document said.

The Brooklyn Bridge’s towers rise about 275 feet above the high-water line, according to a 1977 form nominating the bridge for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

Kolchin was arraigned Monday. He faces charges of reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, trespass and disorderly conduct.

Bail was set at $5,000, and his next court date is scheduled for Friday.

Kolchin’s was the second high-profile stunt on the Brooklyn Bridge in slightly more than a month. In July, the two American flags flying atop the bridge were mysteriously replaced with white flags.

German artists Mishcha Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke claimed responsibility for the swap, and the U.S. flags were returned Thursday via an embassy, police confirmed. There have been no arrests in that case, and the investigation is continuing, police said.

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For more news, both strange and serious, follow @raablauren on Twitter.

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