Hanging out: you must be careful but show no high anxiety when your job is on the ropes washing skyscraper windows.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: PICTURE THIS

Later this year, Gary McGrath will swallow hard and take the plunge. "My wife's from Korea, and it's an 18-hour flight," he says. "The thought of flying just kills me."

It's scarier than hanging off the side of Bank of America Corporate Center and swabbing windows while downtown Charlotte goes about its business 800 feet below. McGrath, vice president of Scottie's Building Services, has done that kind of work much of his life. The company has about 110 employees, including his brothers John, its president, and Thomas B., another vice president. It washes windows for about 1,000 customers.

The clan's father, also Thomas, washed windows in his native Scotland. He and Thomas B. started the Apex-based business in 1986. It also has offices in Greensboro, Charlotte, Atlanta and Richmond, Va.

For the washers, business is rarely looking up. They go to work by rappelling from the top of a building, and once over the edge, there's no turning back. They carry a five-gallon plastic bucket filled with water, dishwashing detergent, a mop and an 18-inch-wide squeegee. Everything is tethered to the washer or his platform. Each descent is called a drop. Washers can do one or two columns of windows per drop, swinging side to side and using suction cups to hold themselves in place. Once on the ground, they take a service elevator to the top, move their ropes and go over the edge again.

Though frightening, the job isn't one of the 100 most dangerous in the nation, says a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Institute for...