Man in underwear climbs onto US-59 overpass sign, ties up traffic before climbing down for SWAT

A man wearing nothing but a pair of white underwear scaled a sign over Highway 59 near George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston on Tuesday night, Dec. 15, 2015, holding up traffic in both directions until Houston Police could talk him down. less A man wearing nothing but a pair of white underwear scaled a sign over Highway 59 near George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston on Tuesday night, Dec. 15, 2015, holding up traffic in both ... more Photo: Metro Video Photo: Metro Video Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close Man in underwear climbs onto US-59 overpass sign, ties up traffic before climbing down for SWAT 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

A man wearing nothing but a pair of white underwear scaled a sign over Highway 59 near George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston on Tuesday night, holding up traffic in both directions until Houston Police SWAT could talk him down.

According to police, the man scaled the sign near the Lamar exit of US-59 around 9:30 p.m., threatening to jump and saying he "wanted to go back to El Salvador."

Negotiators promised "if he came down they would take him."

Eventually, the man climbed down the steel beams on his own, however the incident tied up traffic in both directions of one of downtown Houston's busiest corridors for two hours, according to Houston Fire Department Deputy Chief Blake White.

White said the man is OK and was taken into custody.