You look at the old photos of the construction and these guys were walking around on steel beams 80 stories high with no hard hats, no rails, no protection from falls...it's no surprise they lost 5 workers. I wouldn't argue that safety should be sacrificed, but as others said, a lot of the hold up in construction is environmental review, inspections, permitting process, etc. It's nuts, but the architect conceived of the design in two weeks. Construction began the next year after concept drawings and it took 13 months to build. They were putting down nearly one floor a day. Amazing. And it's an iconic building that remains a landmark today.