Why No Number 13?

[TWDuke]

If you search for “Disneyland,” Google Maps returns “1313 S. Harbor Blvd.” But the parking structure is at 1313 S. Disneyland Drive.

[urban1a]

@jali

In my humble opinion, I can’t, for the life of me, understand why, buildings in the USA never list a 13th floor.

There’s a 13th floor in every building reaching at least 14 floors, but instead we delude ourselves.

Are there that many people who are afraid of the number 13?

It annoys me that we can put a man in space and communicate on the internet, but we pretend there’s no 13th floor.

After many years thinking about this very thing, I have come to the conclusion that the 13th floor always exists (even though not marked) and is occupied by either the CIA or the NSA or other closet government agency. Elevators have codes which force them to stop on these floors (or people get off on preceding or following floors and use the staire), otherwise they are skipped.

Bob

[pulykamell]

@bordelond

:shrug:

I work in a 26-story building … we have a 13th-floor button in the elevator.

I used to work on the 13th floor in a historical building (the Monadnock Buidling, built in 1863) in Chicago. The 13th floor is marked as such on the elevator. It never occurred to me that this was weird. I thought the 13th floor superstition was a rarity, not the default state of floor numbering in high rise buildings.

[MEBuckner]

@Gangster_Octopus

There is no 13th floor button at my building. I suppose it has something to do with the fact it is a six story building.

Tsk, tsk–they were so afraid of the number “13” that they left off seven whole stories from their building just to avoid it? Rank superstition, I tell ya.
I don’t really know how common the “missing thirteen” phenomenon is–I work in a building with a fully labeled, unabashed thirteenth floor; on the other hand, I’ve been in a least of couple of (quite modern, probably '80’s if not '90’s construction) buildings in Atlanta that “left off” the thirteenth floor. I guess I wouldn’t be surprised to see a building label its floors either way (I mean, unless either CSICOP or the National Association of Triskaidekaphobes were to go out and get themselves a 14-story building; then I could be surprised).

[ParentalAdvisory]

@Leaper

Isn’t that what signs are for? Medical professionals would, of course, take the elevator, it being quicker and there being no fire. As for firefighters, even in non-emergency situations, it’s really easy to lose track of what floor you’re on while going up endless flights of stairs in a generally featureless vertical corridor. Because of that, I can’t imagine that firefighters in the middle of a serious blaze determine floors when going up stairs by counting.

“Okay… cough floor nine… cough ten… (Watch those pipes! They’re red hot!) eleven… cough (You’re okay, sir! Get down those stairs as fast as you can!) cough Hey, Bill, what was the last number I said?”
“I don’t remember!”
“Damn, back down the stairs, we gotta start over again!”

Besides which, if it ever were a concern, an inevitable huge lawsuit would’ve made the practice non-existent by now. I just can’t fathom this being any sort of serious problem.

Ok then. Sensibility = 0, crazy superstition 1

[Snnipe_70E]

@YamatoTwinkie

I dunno, I can imagine a scenerio involving ladder trucks on the outside trying to extend a ladder to the 14th floor for a rescue.

That is the definition of a high rise building. Any building that has floors that can not be reached by a ladder truck. On most builfings that is above 6 floors.

[Leaper]

@ParentalAdvisory

Ok then. Sensibility = 0, crazy superstition 1

Sure, as long as you aren’t still insisting it’s some kind of safety hazard.

[Terrifel]

This is the real reason why Third World nations remain underdeveloped. They have so many number superstitions that their buildings can’t have any floors at all.

[levdrakon]

I wonder when the first 13 story or higher building was erected, and whether 13 was avoided in the first building, or if the superstition took hold later.