Hackensack, N.J. ? State officials on Monday defended the soundness of a bridge whose malfunction led to the Christmas night deaths of two Jersey City police officers.

Divers, meanwhile, searched for one victim’s body in the Hackensack River.

“We don’t think there’s any problem from an engineering perspective or a structural perspective,” said Brendan Gill, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. “The bridge is safe.”

The Routes 1 and 9/Lincoln Highway Bridge, between Jersey City and Kearny, was raised for commercial boating traffic twice on Saturday and once Sunday without incident, he said.

The bridge’s center span is raised by massive counterweights, allowing boats to pass underneath, creating a drop-off on the road.

The officers were responding to a malfunction of the bridge’s wooden gate, steel barrier and lights that prevent motorists from reaching the span when it is raised.

The officers – who moments earlier had placed flares on the Kearny side to divert traffic – apparently did not realize the bridge had been raised. They plunged 45 feet into the river in their Ford F550 emergency services truck about 8:20 p.m. on a foggy and rainy night.

Jersey City Police officer Juan Bonet walks near the Pulaski Skyway bridge Monday in Jersey City, N.J., near the site where an emergency squad truck carrying two officers plunged more than 40 feet over the Lincoln Highway Bridge. The body of one officer was recovered Sunday. Authorities continued searching the Hackensack River on Monday for the body of a second police officer.

Shawn M. Carson, 40, a 16-year veteran of the force, was found in the truck’s cab and pronounced dead Sunday night at a hospital. His funeral was scheduled for Friday morning at Mount Olive Baptist Church on Arlington Avenue in Jersey City.

Missing and presumed dead was Robert Nguyen, 30, a six-year veteran of the city’s Emergency Services Unit.

The bridge remained closed to vehicles while more than 200 recovery personnel searched the river’s banks and clay-colored water during the day.

Jersey City Police Officer Eric Tavarez identified himself as one of Nguyen’s closest friends. He spent Sunday night and Monday morning in a rowboat, plying the water. “We just need closure,” Tavarez said.

A statement issued by the Police Department read, “We will search for our fallen brother until we can bring him home to rest.”

Early Monday evening, the search was suspended because of darkness, police said.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said the incident appeared to be accidental, and no criminal investigation was under way. He noted that conditions were hazardous: dark, foggy and rainy.

“I’ve gone over that bridge 1,000 times,” Healy said. “I was there within 20 minutes of the accident and I couldn’t see where that roadway was.”

Gill said the officers had responded to a call from DOT workers.

“Everything on the Jersey City side of the bridge was operational,” he said. “We were aware that we had a problem on the Kearny side with the bridge gate and a crash gate. We were taking measures to address that.”