Two heroic Hub cops are being hailed for going above and beyond the call of duty and putting their own lives at risk to save an emotionally distraught man who was threatening to jump to his death off a Mass Pike overpass Friday night.

“Neither of us thought twice about it,” officer Mike Rockwell told the Herald yesterday. “We just went and did it.”

Rockwell and his former partner, Brendan Bosse, were the first officers to respond to a report of a man climbing over a fence on Columbus Avenue in the South End about 6 p.m. Both cops immediately climbed over the fence and onto a ledge comprised of a narrow plank and exposed pipes to reach the man. The only thing separating them from the speeding turnpike traffic below was a thin steel railing, they said.

“It was a bunch of planks and steel rails. There wasn’t anywhere solid to walk,” Rockwell said.

After stepping out onto the perilous platform, Rockwell and Bosse began trying to speak with the man, whose name was not ­released.

“He kept screaming and yelling. … He kept saying, ‘Get back, get away from me. I just want it to end,’ ” Rockwell said. “I kept telling him, ‘It’s going to be all right,’ and ‘Why don’t you come back over and we’ll get you some help?’ ”

As they desperately attempted to coax him back to safety, the man repeatedly climbed over the small railing to the highway as if he were preparing to jump before climbing back onto the ledge. At one point, Rockwell said the man was hanging off the railing with his legs dangling over the highway.

Realizing that the man was getting closer and closer to jumping, Rockwell and Bosse made their move when he stepped back over the railing, grabbing him and putting him in handcuffs to prevent him from slipping free.

“It was a gut feeling for both of us,” Bosse said, adding that he and Rockwell were able to communicate with each other and make split-second decisions despite not being able to hear each other.

In order to get the man to safety, Rockwell and Bosse led the man back onto the bridge through a hole in the fence that had been cut by Boston firefighters. He was handed over to EMTs, who transported him to a nearby hospital.

And though they’re being credited with helping to save the man’s life, Rockwell and Bosse both said they were just doing their jobs. Bosse summed it up by saying, “I went home last night, I went right to bed, I woke up and I was back at work in the morning for the first shift.”

In a statement last night, police Commissioner William B. Evans said he “couldn’t be prouder of my officers for the composure-filled actions and decisions employed during an incident which led to a life being saved.

“The work done by officers Rockwell and Bosse most certainly underscores and substantiates the selflessness, sacrifice and dedication to keeping others safe that can found in all of my officers,” Evans said. “Saving a life is one of the greatest achievements any police officer can have and, for the rest of their careers, officers Rockwell and Bosse will have this day to be proud of.”