A Long Island man dropped his diamond engagement ring onto the Brooklyn Bridge and ran into oncoming traffic to retrieve it.  The man, Don Walling, had a perfect proposal plan: he asked his girlfriend of four years to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with him and his relatives for a birthday dinner.  Halfway across the bridge, Walling got down on one knee and proposed with the engagement ring.

"Could you give me the greatest birthday gift ever and let me love you for the rest of my life?" Walling asked his girlfriend, 28-year-old Gina Pellicani. 

But before Pellicani could respond, the engagement ring fell out of Walling`s hand and slipped through the planks on the pedestrian walkway: right onto the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Walling scrambled after the ring and shimmied down a 60-feet vertical drop onto the roadway below.  Nearby pedestrians thought he was trying to commit suicide.  They yelled at Walling, imploring him not jump.  But Walling ignored them and jumped down to the roadway to look for the ring.

The Brooklyn Bridge police patrol was alerted, and a police van pulled up near Walling and stopped traffic.  Walling eventually found the (slightly bent) 1.6 carat diamond engagement ring, to cheers from the crowd above.

When Walling got back up the walkway, he once again his girlfriend if she would marry him.  She said yes.