Skip to content, or skip to search.
Skip to content, or skip to search.
Home > Arts & Events >
|
|
2, 3 at Wall St.; J, M, Z at Broad St.; 4, 5 at Wall St.; 1 at Rector St.; R, W at Rector St.
Although the term "Wall Street" has become synonymous with financial influence and power, it's technically just a street in Lower Manhattan, so named because from 1653 to 1699, a wall there protected the northern boundary of the city of New Amsterdam from the British and Native Americans. But it’s the New York Stock Exchange at 11 Wall Street, plus the headquarters of international banks like J.P. Morgan, that make it the center of American finance. Since 9/11, security has blocked off the stock exchange from tourists, but anyone can still pose by George Washington's statue at Federal Hall—the country's first capitol, where he was sworn into office in 1789. Limestone architecture constructed during the Gilded Age dominates the street, although there are some Art Deco jewels as well, like the Bank of New York Building at 1 Wall Street, which has a fantastic mosaic atrium inside. Wall Street frames historic Trinity Church at one terminus at Broadway and runs to South Street. Though at one time it was a ghost town when the stock exchange wasn’t in session, today luxury residences have a presence there, as do as sports clubs, chic retailers like Tiffany & Co., and Cipriani's glitzy, blockwide event space.
ToursThe Downtown Alliance provides 90-minute walking tours, leaving from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian every Thursday and Saturday at noon. Call 212-606-4064 for more information.

Act of GodThe "Manufactured Landscapes" director gives us a thrillingly strange journey through the wide and beautiful world of lightning -- from its spectacular visual majesty to its honored place in myth to its puzzling physical reality. More »
The hunky, hirsute drummer for the Fleet Foxes continues his gut-wrenching, brow-furrowing solo career with his sixth album, "Year in the Kingdom." More »
The Jesus Lizard at Fillmore New York at Irving Plaz
Unpredictable and sometimes R-rated, the old-school Chicago rock and rollers reunited last year and are bursting with provocation. More »