Flatiron Building and the '23 skidoo' loitering myth

The Flatiron Building at 175 Fifth Avenue is central to a longstanding urban legend that the phrase '23 skidoo' came from policemen dispersing men who gathered to watch winds lift women's skirts at the building's triangular corner. The Flatiron's winds near 23rd Street did attract crowds in the early 1900s, but the phrase's precise origin is debated among etymologists and historians. The anecdote is widely repeated in New York folklore guides but is not definitively documented as the phrase's origin.