More than just another street in Lower Manhattan, Wall Street is the world’s marketplace and the heart of New York’s Financial District. Wall Street is home to some of the largest financial exchanges in the world with billions of dollars made and lost on a daily basis. Even the term Wall Street has come to represent America’s financial health and big business. From the New York Stock Exchange and large investment banks to the local street vendors, commerce of all kinds reigns supreme on Wall Street.

The Walls of New Amsterdam

The street itself dates back to the earliest European settlements on lower Manhattan Island. During the middle part of the 17th Century, the Dutch were the dominate population in what was called New Amsterdam. Fearful of attacks by the British and Native Americans, the Dutch West India Company commissioned the building of various fortifications. It is thought that the primary fortified wall was the basis for the land surveys and plats that followed, with the street alignments representing the original stockade and other defenses.

The New President

By the end of the Revolutionary War, the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets had developed into an area of fine marble and limestone buildings. Commercial trading had been ongoing since the late 1600s. Built in 1700, the Federal Hall building at 26 Wall Street was the scene of one America’s greatest moments in history. On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. Standing on a balcony overlooking Wall Street, Washington’s inauguration set the stage for many historic moments to come.

The Ups and Downs of Wall Street

In the 1920’s, American business was in the middle of a period of tremendous growth. Public trading in stocks and other financial instruments was exploding in what history has shown to be wildly optimistic frenzy. Owning a piece of the action on Wall Street became a social status symbol among many of the country’s urbanites.

In an environment quite similar to recent events on Wall Street, a casino-like atmosphere pervaded the financial markets. Stockholders were able to buy shares on margin, needing only to put up 10 percent of the share price. The feeling on Wall Street was euphoric and few believed that stock prices would fall. In October 1929, euphoria was replaced by panic as the financial markets collapsed leaving Wall Street awash in desperate investors.

The great crash ushered in the Great Depression that lasted some say until around 1938. Wall Street saw tremendous ups and downs during this period. One of the results of the Crash of 1929 was a flood of governmental regulations meant to rein in the wild stock speculation that brought down the world’s largest economy. A bastion of free market capitalism, Wall Street remains the place where fortunes are made and lost, sometimes in the same day.

With the construction of the World Trade Center complex in the early 1970s, Wall Street shared its reputation as the investment capital of the world. The tragedy of September 11, 2001 ended the reign of the WTC but not the spirit of entrepreneurship that made Wall Street the world’s marketplace.