Flatiron Building winds and the '23 skidoo' origin

The Flatiron Building at 175 Fifth Avenue is associated in local lore with strong gusts that blew up women's skirts at the building's triangular intersection, leading to police dispersing loiterers. The phrase '23 skidoo' is popularly linked to this phenomenon as an instruction to move along, but the exact origin of the phrase is debated among historians and linguists. The Flatiron's distinctive triangular form and early‑20th‑century publicity helped cement the anecdote in New York folklore.