Our hotel is not far from the financial quarter including the infamous Wall Street. A worldwide symbol of money, stocks and shares.
And thanks to cultural references and films such as the Bonfire of the Vanities, Wall Street’s hideous protagonist Gordon Gecko and the more recent Wolf of Wall Street, it has also come to serve as a metaphor for greed, amoral trading and self-interest.
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River.
According to Wikipdia there are varying accounts about how the Dutch-named “de Waalstraat” got its name. One version is that the name of the street was derived from a wall on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement, built to protect against Native Americans, pirates, and the British.
Another theory is that Wall Street was named after Walloons, a distinctive ethnic community within Belgium as the Dutch name for a Walloon is Waal.
There’s plenty of buildings dedicated to the literal enrichment of bankers and stockbrokers such as the New York Stock exchange above.
Plus there’s places to spend all those ill gotten gains too – like the famous Tiffanys Jewellers.
Below is Trinity Church that was finished in 1846. It is the third holy incarnation on the site as previous versions perished first by fire then by severe storm damage. A church has been there for over 300 years.
During the September 11 attacks, people took refuge inside the church from a huge dust cloud produced by the first World Trade Center tower collapse. Some of the chapel pew’s paint was rubbed off from the people taking refuge.
Other notable buildings in the area include Trump Towers and the Federal Hall National Memorial. The current memorial was built in 1842 on the site of the former Federal Hall.
This building was particularly important as it was the first capitol of the newly created United States in 1789 and on its steps George Washington was sworn in as the first President.