What is Wall Street?
Wall Street is a famous street which runs through lower Manhattan. It is the historic site of many financial institutions, and as such, it has become a symbol of commerce and the American economy. Several firms continue to maintain offices at Wall Street locations, capitalizing on the name recognition factor involved. Many visitors to New York like to take a stroll along Wall Street to examine the famous buildings and locations scattered along its length. There are two explanations for the name “Wall Street.” Some historians believe that the street references a literal wall built by the Dutch in the 1600s to protect themselves from invasions. Others have suggested that the name is a reference to the Walloons, citizens from Belgium who played a large role in the construction of New Amsterdam, better known as New York City today. In any case, by the 18th century, this East-West running street had become associated with commerce, thanks to informal meetings of traders under a famous butto
Wall Street , site of major United States stock exchanges and financial institutions, located in the lower Manhattan area of New York City. The term Wall Street has come to be synonymous with United States financial interests. Wall Street is a short, narrow street in lower Manhattan that extends from Broadway to the East River; symbolically, the term Wall Street stands for the U.S. financial world because of many of the nation’s stock-brokerage companies, banks, and commodity exchanges are located either on the street or in the immediate neighborhood. The name is taken from an old wall built in 1653 by Peter Stuyvesant across lower Manhattan Island, at what was then the northernmost boundary of the city, to protect the Dutch colonists. Wall Street landmarks include Trinity Church (1846), the New York Stock Exchange Building, the House of Morgan, and the old U.S. Sub-Treasury Building, on the site of which George Washington was inaugurated (1789) as first president of the United States.
