The cold weather is finally gone. There was a shortened Spring...but Summer is now upon us. As we look up in this beautiful city, we see that the window washers are out in full force.
You have to look closely.....they look like little bugs climbing up a wall!
Cleaning the windows of a residential building can be interesting. Sometimes the window washers make soap smiley faces on the windows for the children that are staring at them!
These men brave the elements...heat, rain and gusts of wind!
When nature takes charge....all you can do is hold on and hope your safety devices work!
Imagine having to clean the windows of the 'Freedom Tower'!
In November 2014, scaffolding broke and 2 window washers dangled from the 68th floor of this Tower for hours. Finally, firemen were able to cut through a window and pull them to safety!
So how much does a guy get paid for doing this dangerous job? You would be surprised.
Starting out, you may only make $12-$15 an hour. Not worth it, you say?
Some make $20-$30 an hour. The average wage for a window washer in New York City is 36% higher than anywhere else in the US.
So...If you are a window washer and you have a love of heights, New York City is your town to work in!
The Time Warner Towers. Each tower takes 6 men 4 months to clean an entire building.
Since buildings need to be cleaned twice a year, so it is a never-ending job!
This is one of the tallest residential towers in Manhattan. It is on the South end of Central Park. They designed a multi-million dollar crane just to clean the building. This particular day they were out cleaning. When not in use the crane collapses and goes back inside the roofline of the building. The cleaning platform lowers down one swath and moves and comes back up the next row of windows. It is continuous and runs automatically.
These guys were only up about 10 stories. Hope they get more than $12 an hour.
These two window washers are 'safely' tucked in their scaffolding platform...
No scaffolding for this guy...He was 'jumping' from window to window as if he were Spiderman!
So, which building has the hardest windows to clean?
The hardest windows to clean in the city...the Empire State Building. Why? Because people keep throwing things out of the windows. (Yes, the windows still open!) One window washer reported that someone on one of the top floors threw out 20 gallons of strawberry preserves. It was winter; and the preserves not only drizzled down a myriad of windows but froze to them! Those windows were almost impossible to clean!
We love New York City and everything there is to do. At the top of the list is still attending the Temple.
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