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Wall Street By Andr茅s Nieto Porras from Palma de Mallorca –

Top 10 Interesting Facts about the Wall Street District

Home to the world鈥檚 two largest stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ,  Wall street has made a name for itself globally. Being the heart of the financial industry, it attracts so much attention. This famous street has become the face for the financial markets in the United States.

with a number of movies made about it, how much is really known about this famous street? Here are 10 interesting facts about the wall street district.

1. The street runs across 8 blocks in Lower Manhattan

Wall Street By Henry Han –

Wall Street runs for a short eight blocks in lower Manhattan and is the headquarters of America鈥檚 financial markets. It runs all the way from Broadway in the west to the East River in the east. Initially built by the Dutch to stave off the English, Wall Street evolved to represent much more than a Manhattan address.

Even though the street only runs across 8 blocks, it鈥檚 considered to be one of the most important streets in the world and literally represents the financial markets in the United States. As such, Wall Street is often used as a metonym to define the financial markets.

2. The Street was originally called 鈥渄e Waal Straat鈥�

de Waal Straat Wall Street By Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia –

named by the Dutch when New York was a Dutch settlement known as New Amsterdam. It is believed that it was named Wall Street because of a wall built by the Dutch to protect the area from the British. the earthen part of the structure came from earlier fortifications built to defend against possible attacks by Native Americans and pirates. The labor on the wall is believed to have been performed by slaves.

3. Technically, Wall Street is just a street, located in the Financial District.

However, the name is synonymous with business as it’s often used in association with financial markets as a whole, specifically the New York Stock Exchange (the largest of its kind in the world It鈥檚 surrounding financial district makes New York the second in a list of the world鈥檚 financial centers according to the Global Financial Centres Index. Top of the list is London, England.

4. It became a slave market in the early 18th century

A few decades later, around halfway through the 17th century, the original wooden wall was replaced by a stone fortification. This wall was commissioned by Peter Stuyvesant, the director-general of New Netherland. Even though slavery was pretty common in the colony throughout the 17th century and the new wall was even built by slaves.

The slave market wasn鈥檛 official until December 13, 1711 This slave market was operational on the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets from 1711 to 1762 and the city did well because of it as they charged taxes for every slave that was bought or rented on the market.

5. A Wall Street coffee house was the first location of the New York Stock Exchange.

Coffeehouse Slip, the foot of Wall Street, New York City By Drawn and engraved by H. Fossette –

This was the Tontine Coffee House which was on a corner of Wall Street and Water Street. The Stock Exchange then moved to a rented room in a building at 40 Wall Street in 1817 but moved from here in 1835 after a fire destroyed the building. Its new location in 1861 was on Broad Street. The building was demolished in 1901 and a new building was built in 1903 and is the New York Stock Exchange鈥榮 current building.

6. The first Presidential inauguration happened here

Two mighty important moments in the history of the United States happened on Wall Street. The first presidential inauguration happened on the balcony of Federal Hall on April 30, 1789. On this day, George Washington took the oath of office. One year earlier, the Bill of Rights which consists of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution, was passed here as well

7. It was the scene of a horrible act of terrorism in 1920

Bomb in Wall Street, 1920 By Unknown author —

Wall Street became one of the busiest places in the city in the early 20th century. It retained its status as one of the most important financial centers in the world and thousands of people worked in the financial district.

8. A church on Wall Street was once the tallest building in the United States

One of the most amazing churches in New York City is located on Wall Street and is referred to as the 鈥淭rinity Church.鈥� The original church was founded in 1698 but was destroyed in the Great New York City Fire of 1776. The second church on the location was much larger and stood 200 feet (60 meters) tall but was demolished when it became severely weakened because of heavy snowfall in 1839.

The current church was built between 1839 and 1846 in the Gothic Revival architectural style and stands 281 feet (86 meters) tall. This made it the tallest building in the United States until 1869 and the tallest building in New York City until 1890!

9. Movies have been made about it

Wall Street鈥� was a movie released in 1987 which examined the 1980s culture of greed and financial excess that defined the decade. It was directed by Oliver Stone and starred Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, Daryl Hannah and Martin Sheen. It was followed by a sequel in 2010 which was again directed by Oliver Stone. Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen returned to it. The film also starred Shia LaBeouf.

10. Stock market crush

A solemn crowd gathers outside the Stock Exchange after the crash. 1929.By US-gov –

The stock market collapsed in what is now known as the Wall Street Crash in 1929. This was basically the result of prices of stocks and shares falling suddenly after rising gradually throughout the 1920s.

During this decade, as more and more people invested money (quite often money that they had been loaned), the value of stocks and shares rose to the point that they were valued at much more than they were actually worth.

As some investors began to realize this, they decided to sell their investments to cash in on them. Panic selling soon followed. This caused share prices to suddenly fall, with the first large drop in their value occurring on Thursday 24th October 1929.

More traders decided to sell up on the following Monday and Tuesday leading to the collapse of the market. These days are all now known as Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black Tuesday. Many people believe that this crash was a major cause of the Great Depression which affected the economies of many countries during the 1930s

There you have it, 10 interesting facts about the wall street district.