Wall Street.

'De Waal Straat'

Wall street, a name used for both geographic purposes, and used to refer to the financial world and economic situations. Wall street is in lower manhattan, in the financial district. Let's first dig into the origins of this world known phrase.

Among the dutch settlers of the new amsterdam community in lower manhattan was Peter Stuyvesant. The 'wall' was designed to protect them. The new settlers were afraid of attack from the Lenape Indians, the British and others. It started with local merchants and grew to be the worlds financial center. But what happenned between the wall being a protection and a financial community?

During the revolutionary war traders gathered. Loans were used and techniques were developed. What accelarated this process was the US goverment needing more money to finance the war. Many things were happenning, featuring debts and bailouts, and an operation was set up in the east side of the street. Wall street accelarated and accelerated with its finance

Wall street stretches 0.7 miles, or 8 blocks. 'Wall street' has become a metonym for all financial markets and the financial sector of the US.

Here as some facts about wall st.:

-9/11 had a big impact on wall street, it is said that about 45% of its best office space was destroyed.

-Wall st's architecture is from the Gilded age, with an art deco influence.

-This area doesn't follow the typical new york grid system, as it was laid out prior to the commissioners plan

-There has been a big increase in the use of the area as resedential, perhaps increasing by 60% from 1990 to 2000.

-Estimates have been made that the financial services industry is 9% of the cities workforce.