Barton Silverman, a New York Times sports photographer, recalled an exciting moment near the start of his illustrious career, as a 19-year-old in Brooklyn witnessing construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1962.

He tells the Lens blog:

I started pulling on the rope and my foot slipped. Half my body was off the bridge. I had this huge camera bag pulling me down. I didn’t know if I should drop the bag into the water or save myself. Six construction workers came to help.

Shaken but unharmed, Silverman made it off the bridge — which turns 50 this year — and on to a photojournalism career spanning four decades.

via Falling for the Photo in Staten Island.