Two window washers, who became trapped on scaffolding near the 68th floor of One World Trade Center, have been rescued by New York firefights after more than one hour.
Footage showed the workers rescued through a hole cut in one of the glass windows of One World Trade Center.
The two people were uninjured and tethered.
The window washers became trapped on scaffolding near the 68th floor of One World Trade Center
The call came in at 12:42 EST and the firefighters were on the scene in less than four minutes, a spokesman said.
The window cleaners were pulled inside at around 14:15 EST.
The rescued men were identified as Juan Lopez, who has been a window cleaner for five years, and Juan Lizama, who has been on the job for 14 years, Gerard McEneaney, a labor union official, told Reuters.
The 1,776ft tower opened for business last week as the first of 3,000 employees of publishing giant Conde Nast moved into their new offices there.
A police official said the partially collapsed cradle was hanging at “a 75-degree angle”.
The cable on the cradle apparently broke as it retracted towards the roof of the building.
People on the ground were moved back in case glass began flying from One World Trade, the country’s tallest skyscraper.
Gary Hansen, an architect who worked on One World Trade Center, happened to be across the street during the incident.
He told Reuters the building was designed with three cranes on top, two to suspend platforms and one for emergencies.
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New York’s World Trade Center has re-opened for business more than 13 years after the original towers were destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.
Employees at publishing giant Conde Nast are starting to move into the 104-storey One World Trade Center.
The $3.8 billion skyscraper took eight years to build and is now the tallest building in the US.
It is 60% leased and the government’s General Services Administration has signed up for 275,000 square feet.
“The New York City skyline is whole again,” Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, which owns the restored site, said in a statement.
The 1,776ft tall skyscraper is at the centre of the site, which includes a memorial in the footprints of the old towers and a museum, opened this year.
New York’s World Trade Center has re-opened for business more than 13 years after the original towers were destroyed in the 9/11 attacks (photo AP)
An observation deck at the top of the building will eventually be open to the public.
Patrick Foye added the building was “the most secure office building in America”.
TJ Gottesdiener of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill company that produced the final design said the high-rise went beyond the city’s existing building code, and was built with steel-inforced concrete.
About 170 of Conde Nast’s employees will be moving into the building this week, filling five floors. About 3,000 more employees will join them in early 2015.
Space has also been leased to the advertising firm Kids Creative, the GSA, and 191,000 sq ft for the China Center, a trade and cultural space.
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New York City’s newly erected One World Trade Center has been declared the tallest building in the US, at 1,776 ft (541 m).
The Height Committee of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat announced its decision in Chicago.
The previous title holder was that city’s tallest building, the Willis Tower, at 1,451 ft (442 m).
The committee ruled a 408ft needle at the top counted toward its height.
One World Trade Center has been declared the tallest building in the US
Antony Wood, executive director of the committee, which is seen as the final official word on building heights around the world, said the needle counted as a permanent structure.
Without that needle, the building measures 1,368 feet, well below the height of the Willis Tower, which was formerly known as the Sears Tower.
Both skyscrapers fall well short of the world’s tallest building, the 2,723 ft (830 m) Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
One World Trade Center was built on the lower Manhattan site of the iconic Twin Towers, which were destroyed in the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 along with other buildings in the World Trade Center complex.
More than 2,000 people were killed there.
One World Trade Center ‘s height of 1,776 ft is a symbolic reference to the year of the signing of the US declaration of independence from Britain.
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