Cleaners began blasting Seattle’s Space Needle with hot water and high pressure hoses on Thursday as they demonstrated how they’ll give the structure what is billed as its first deep external cleaning since it opened in 1962 for the World’s Fair.

German-based cleaning company Karcher will spend five to eight weeks removing decades of accumulated pollution, bird droppings and dirt. Karcher cleaners plan to use a rope-access method and rappel down the 605-foot-tall tower rather than build scaffolding.

Karcher has also cleaned Mount Rushmore and Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.

(Seattle Times)