Geography
History
Origin Of The Name
Main Attractions Of The Neighborhood
1. Fraunces Tavern (54 Pearl St): This historic tavern is part of the fabric of the neighborhood and can trace its root all the way back to the 1700s and George Washington, who used to hold meetings in this tavern.
2. Adrienne’s Pizzabar (54 Stone St): This restaurant is famous for its old-fashioned pies and good environment.
3. Hole In The Wall (15 Cliff St): It’s a prominent café and bar in the heart of the neighborhood. Its patrons love it for its brunch menu, avocado toast, and coffee.
4. The Dead Rabbit (30 Water St): It’s an Irish bar with bells and whistles, but it retains a genuine aura and is counted among the best Irish bars in the city, despite being one of the newest (2013).
5. Trinity Place Bar and Restaurant (115 Broadway): It’s a 1904 bank vault converted into a restaurant in 2006. But the amazing food makes it more than just an aesthetic/historic attraction.
6. One World Trade Center (285 Fulton St): The main building in the rebuilt World Trade Center is the tallest building in the US and the Western Hemisphere and the seventh-tallest in the world. It is 1,792 feet tall (to the tip) and stands as a gorgeous piece of architecture.
7. New York Stock Exchange building (11 Wall St): Also called the “Big Board,” is the largest stock exchange in the world. The building has been there since 1903 (expanded in 1920) and is recognizable thanks to the renowned pediment (made up of 11 figures): Integrity Protecting the Works of Man.
8. Trinity Church (89 Broadway): It’s a historical building, built multiple times, and the 1846 structure (over 285 feet) that stands today was the tallest building in the country for about 23 years.
9. Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown (27 Barclay St): This 926 foot tall, 82-story building is one of the tallest residential buildings in not just the neighborhood but all of lower Manhattan.
10. Federal Reserve Bank of New York (33 Liberty St): It’s an imposing structure sitting on the gold vaults resting on bedrock 80 feet below the street level.
11. Charging Bull (Broadway, Near Bowling Green): One of the most famous and iconic attractions of the Financial District, the neighborhood of skyscrapers, is ironically not a building but a 7,100-pound bronze statue symbolizing the strength of Wall Street.
12. One World Observatory (117 West St): Resting on the top three floors of the One World Trade Center, allows you to gaze at NYC from literally the top.
13. City Hall Park (Broadway & Chambers St): It’s a public park with deep historical roots. It used to be called “the Commons” in the 1600s and served as a communal pasture.
14. Bowling Green NYC (Broadway & Whitehall St): It’s the oldest park in NYC (1733) and the starting point for Ticker Tape Parade.
15. The Oculus (Church St): The transportation hub for the new World Trade Center and a shopping mall is easily one of the most stunning (and costliest) structures in the Financial District.
What Is the Financial District Known For?
- Wall Street.
- 9/11.
- Its rich history, which is tied quite tightly to the history of the nation.
- Some of the most iconic structures and famous buildings in NYC.
- Some of the tallest buildings in the city.
- Being the reason NYC is considered the financial center of the world.
- The place where George Washington took oath as the first president of the US.
- It’s a busy office vibe.
Population
Interesting Facts About Financial District
- In 1776, when the declaration of independence was red, people went into the Bowling Green Park (Broadway & Whitehall St), the oldest park in NYC, and toppled the statue of King George, the third to be melted for bullets for the war of independence.
- Ticker tape parade started out spontaneously in the Financial District (Canyon of Heroes) when in 1886, after the dedication of the statue of liberty, office workers on both sides of the Broadway started through ticker tape, which was an ample in financial/stock-related offices. The canyon of Heroes is lined up with the names of the people for whom this parade was thrown.
- The Equitable Building (120 Broadway) in the Financial District and the shadow it cast was one of the main catalysts of the 1916 zoning resolution, which forced buildings to follow structural guidelines past a certain height to allow better sunlight penetration. It triggered the construction of buildings with narrower heights (wedding cake design).
- The NYSE (11 Wall St, New York) building has a Buttonwood tree in front to commemorate its origins.
- The New York Fed’s gold vault currently contains (2019 estimate) about 3% of the total gold currently available in the world (excluding unmined reserves).
