Rescuer Honored for Jumping Off a Bridge to Save Drowning Man : Emergencies: The Chatsworth resident will receive $2,500 and a medal for selfless act.

Nathan Adlen did “something crazy” and now he’s a certified hero.

Adlen, 21, of Chatsworth jumped off the bridge over San Francisco Bay that connects San Mateo with Hayward and helped save the life of man who was knocked into the water during a car accident.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announced Thursday that Adlen was among 18 people to be honored as heroes this year. Each will get an engraved medal and $2,500.

In September of last year, while Adlen was visiting relatives in the Bay Area, he was following his brother’s car over the bridge to the East Bay about 10 a.m. when they noticed a wrecked auto about a mile from the Hayward side and pulled over.

“A woman was screaming about a man drowning. . . . I saw him floating face down about 20 feet from the bridge. I kicked off my shoes and dove in,” Adlen said.

He nearly killed himself. Adlen jumped from a height of 30 feet, not realizing that at that point, the bay is only about seven feet deep--a risk he now agrees was “something crazy.”

“I thought I was jumping into the Pacific Ocean,” Adlen said. “I hit the bottom of the bay and cut my knee. I was stunned. I was stuck in sediment for a few seconds.”

The victim, Harry Cathrea, 27, was knocked into the bay after he pulled over on the bridge to help a woman whose car was stalled. He was looking under the hood when another vehicle rear-ended the stalled car, sending Cathrea flying into the bay.

When Adlen found Cathrea, the man was unconscious and had swallowed water. Adlen towed Cathrea under the bridge, and Michael L. Barden, 37, of Mountain View, jumped in, bringing a rope. They tied the rope around Cathrea’s arms and people who had gathered on the bridge hoisted him to safety. Barden, who also won a Carnegie award, and Adlen were then hoisted the same way.

Heroism seems to run in Alden’s family. His mother, who works for the Red Cross, is in South Florida helping victims of Hurricane Andrew, while his father works in disaster planning for the Army reserves.

“It could be in the genes,” said Adlen, who received a college degree in theatrical set design last year. “But I never thought of myself as a hero. I’ve always tried to stay in the background. That’s why I majored in set building instead of acting.”

He did not realize the danger he put himself into until weeks afterward.

“I later heard about a similar case where someone who dove in like I did drowned. That gave me goose bumps,” Adlen said. “I don’t know what came over me. It’s like dropping a pencil--you just reach down and pick it up without thinking.”

The night before he received his award letter from the Carnegie Commission, Adlen saw a preview of “Hero,” a soon-to-be-released film starring Dustin Hoffman as a “nerdy guy” who saves victims of plane wreck and then disappears.

‘My friends were all teasing me about the similarities,” Adlen said. “I’m like him . . . in the sense that I’m just this reluctant person who just ended up rescuing someone.”

His most rewarding experience since the accident was celebrating with the now-healed Cathrea and Barden last spring during a visit to the Bay Area, where the rescuers were honored by the California Highway Patrol.

“We went out and had a few drinks afterward,” Adlen said. “I told Harry: ‘I’m glad you’re such a great guy, because if you weren’t I would have thrown you back in again.’ ”