Window Washer Winners & A Loser In New York

The duo was cleaning the exterior of the JPMorgan Chase windows on Madison Ave. near 46th St. when they got stuck at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Two window washers stranded on side of midtown high-rise when scaffolding goes on the fritz - The two workers manage to escape the scaffolding on the side of the J.P. Morgan building before rescue personnel arrived Wednesday morning. They were left high and dry, but only for a few minutes. Two window washers on a motorized scaffolding ended up getting stuck several floors up on the side of midtown high-rise Wednesday morning — but were able to get to safety before help could arrive, officials said.

The incident was over within minutes.

The duo was cleaning windows on the JPMorgan Chase building on Madison Ave. near 46th St. at about 9:30 a.m. when their scaffolding apparently went on the fritz. An FDNY source said the duo was able to get off the scaffolding before rescuers got there. "No one was on the scaffolding when we arrived," an FDNY spokeswoman said. It wasn't immediately clear which floor the motorized scaffolding was on when it stopped moving.

A loser, outside an East 14th Street apartment building near Union Square.

Daring Window Washer Eschews Harness, Sanity - Is teetering on the edge of a high ledge sans harness a new and exciting trend in window-washing? In April, a gentleman captured our hearts and boggled our minds after he was seen dangling casually from an open window 100 feet above the pavement dwellers slinking below. In July, alarmed office workers sent a photo of a man clinging to the outside an adjacent building, seemingly wiping away without a rope in sight. (The building's management company insisted the man was in fact wearing a Charmed Invisible Harness, and that he was as safe as a baby in an artisan-crafted bjorn. We remain skeptical.)

And now, this. While this fellow, perched outside an East 14th Street apartment building near Union Square, doesn't quite set the record for Highest Free Form Window Wash, he's sufficiently far from the ground that falling would likely result in death, or at the very least, paralysis and the breaking of several important bones. Then again, it's not like there are any great options in the first place.