MOTORISTS alerted police after seeing a body hanging from the Lindridge Lane bridge over the A380 at Kingsteignton on Sunday night.
Officers closed the busy road into and out of Newton Abbot as firefighters arrived to help recover the dangling body above the highway.
The alarm was raised just before 9.30pm, prompting a delicate operation to retrieve the dead man metres above the Penn Inn-bound carriageway.
Police later confirmed that the man, who had been the subject of a ‘concern for welfare’ alert, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A spokesman added that there were no suspicious circumstances.
HM Coroner has been informed of the tragedy - and an inquest is expected to open soon to take formal evidence of identity.
Road closures were immediately put in place at the Penn Inn Flyover and the Ideford Dip when the grim discovery was made.
Details of the dead man and the circumstances of his death have not yet been released.