Workers Pulled to Safety Through 44th Story Window at Hearst Tower in New York City

June 12, 2013— -- Two maintenance workers were pulled to safety today through a window at the Hearst Tower in New York City after they spent more than an hour dangling 500 feet above the city on broken scaffolding.

Firefighters appeared to have cut the glass of a 44th floor window and pulled the two men inside from dangling scaffolding. They later boarded up the gaping hole that was cut in the glass window.

The men were working near the top of the 46-story glass and steel tower in the heart of midtown New York City this afternoon when the scaffolding they were standing on appeared to have broken in the center, leaving them stranded.

Firefighters and police officers rushed to the scene and shut down nearby streets as the rescue effort was underway.

Firefighters perched over the top of the roof and appeared to have contact with the men as they determined the best way to pull them to safety.

William Seelig, assistant chief of the New York Fire Department, told ABC News affiliate WABC-TV that rescuers had determined the safest way to get to the workers was to remove a glass window and bring them into the building from the 44th floor.

"Once you put people over [a building], then you have the issue of bringing them back up," he said.

The Hearst Tower was declared the first "green" office building in New York City, according to its website, and serves as the global headquarters for the Hearst Media Corporation.