Flatiron Building

Stand in the small pedestrian plaza facing the building's tip and look up. The Flatiron looks like the prow of a ship cutting between two avenues. It fills a triangular lot created where Broadway slices diagonally across Fifth Avenue, and it makes use of every inch.

1The Fuller Building

It was designed by the Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, with Frederick Dinkelberg, and opened in 1902. Its official name was the Fuller Building, after the construction company that built it, but New Yorkers quickly dubbed it the Flatiron, after its resemblance to the clothes irons of the day. It has 22 stories and a steel frame clad in limestone and terra cotta with Renaissance-style ornament.

Many people were sure it would topple in the first strong gale. It didn't, and photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen turned it into an icon of the modern city.

According to tradition, the wind swirling around this corner lifted the skirts of passing women, and police shooed away the gawkers with a cry of «23 skidoo!».

It is an often-repeated tale about the origin of that slang phrase, but there is no way to prove it.

2Madison Square

The park in front of you holds another surprise: from 1876 to 1882, the torch-bearing arm of the Statue of Liberty was displayed here to raise money before the statue was finished.

3What to look for

• The tip of the building, only about six and a half feet wide.
• The terra cotta ornament, with medallions and masks.
• The view to the north, where the Empire State Building, the next stop, peeks out.