The other really impressive part is that they also treated the workers really well during the construction. Cautionary Tales did an episode on this: https://timharford.com/2024/09/cautionary-tales-steel-and-ki...

They paid good wages but also kept a high bar on quality and performance. The workers in turn were incentivized to do a good job and gave feedback like ideas on how to improve efficiency, e.g. build an internal railroad to carry bricks up as they got higher and higher in height.

You can't do something like the Empire State Building in an year without treating your workers well. (And the suppliers, and investing in machines quality, and safety...)

You can build it in a decade or two, and get something close to what you designed. But you can't build it in an year.