New York ( CNN ) -- Two workers were rescued more than 550 feet above the streets of midtown Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon after their scaffolding buckled near the top of the Hearst Tower , the New York Fire Department said . The agency 's chief of special operations told CNN the workers , who spent 90 minutes dangling near the top of the building , suffered `` no immediate medical incidents . '' William Seelig said firefighters cut through a double-paned window on the 45th floor and brought the workers in through the newly created hole . It took about 30 minutes for authorities to cut through the glass and send a firefighter onto the scaffolding to assist the workers . Moses Neslon , a paramedic who attended to the men , said one was in his 20s and the other was in his 40s . They were smiling throughout the whole ordeal , he said . `` All this for us ? '' one of the men jokingly asked him . The firefighter who helped guide them into the building , Tom Gayron , told reporters it was n't especially windy , despite the height . He said the workers stayed calm as he helped them . Seelig said the scaffolding , which bent sharply near the middle , was secured and passers-by on the street were in no danger . The workers were doing building maintenance , another fire official said . The Hearst Tower is 46 stories tall and is the global headquarters of the 126-year-old media company . It rises out of a six-story Depression-era , Art Deco facade with landmark status . The original design was for a skyscraper , but construction came to a halt when the Great Depression hit . In the latter half of the 20th century , a commission approved a plan to add on the modern skyscraper while preserving the original facade .
The two workers were performing maintenance on the Chrysler Building in New York . The ladder they were on buckled in the middle . They were rescued after firefighters cut a hole in the glass window near them . ` ` All this for us ? '' one said to a colleague .