Financial District, Manhattan


The Financial District of Lower Manhattan, also known as FiDi, is a neighborhood located on the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by the West Side Highway on the west, Chambers Street and City Hall Park on the north, Brooklyn Bridge on the northeast, the East River to the southeast, and South Ferry and the Battery on the south.
The City of New York was created in the modern-day Financial District in 1624, and the neighborhood roughly overlaps with the boundaries of the New Amsterdam settlement in the late 17th century. The district comprises the offices and headquarters of many of the city's major financial institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Anchored on Wall Street in the Financial District, New York City has been called both the leading financial center and the most economically powerful city of the world, and the New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest stock exchange by total market capitalization. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Financial District, including the New York Mercantile Exchange, NASDAQ, the New York Board of Trade, and the former American Stock Exchange.
The Financial District is part of Manhattan Community District 1, and its primary ZIP Codes are 10004, 10005, 10006, 10007, and 10038. It is patrolled by the 1st Precinct of the New York City Police Department.

Description

The Financial District encompasses roughly the area south of City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan but excludes Battery Park and Battery Park City. The former World Trade Center complex was located in the neighborhood until the September 11, 2001, attacks; the neighborhood includes the successor One World Trade Center. The heart of the Financial District is often considered to be the corner of Wall Street and Broad Street, both of which are contained entirely within the district. The northeastern part of the Financial District was known in the early 20th century as the Insurance District, due to the large number of insurance companies that were either headquartered there, or maintained their New York offices there.
Although the term is sometimes used as a synonym for Wall Street, the latter term is often applied metonymously to the financial markets as a whole, whereas "the Financial District" implies an actual geographical location. The Financial District is part of Manhattan Community Board 1, which also includes five other neighborhoods.

Street grid

The streets in the area were laid out as part of the Castello Plan prior to the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, a grid plan that dictates the placement of most of Manhattan's streets north of Houston Street. Thus, it has small streets "barely wide enough for a single lane of traffic are bordered on both sides by some of the tallest buildings in the city", according to one description, which creates "breathtaking artificial canyons". Some streets have been designated as pedestrian-only with vehicular traffic prohibited.

Tourism

The Financial District is a major location of tourism in New York City. One report described Lower Manhattan as "swarming with camera-carrying tourists". Tour guides highlight places such as Trinity Church, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building gold vaults 80 feet below street level, and the New York Stock Exchange Building. A Scoundrels of Wall Street Tour is a walking historical tour which includes a museum visit and discussion of various financiers "who were adept at finding ways around finance laws or loopholes through them". Occasionally artists make impromptu performances; for example, in 2010, a troupe of 22 dancers "contort their bodies and cram themselves into the nooks and crannies of the Financial District in Bodies in Urban Spaces" choreographed by Willi Donner. One chief attraction, the Federal Reserve, paid $750,000 to open a visitors' gallery in 1997. The New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange also spent money in the late 1990s to upgrade facilities for visitors. Attractions include the gold vault beneath the Federal Reserve and that "staring down at the trading floor was as exciting as going to the Statue of Liberty".

Architecture

The Financial District's architecture is generally rooted in the Gilded Age, though there are also some art deco influences in the neighborhood. The area is distinguished by narrow streets, a steep topography, and high-rises Construction in such narrow steep areas has resulted in occasional accidents such as a crane collapse. One report divided lower Manhattan into three basic districts:
  1. The Financial District proper—particularly along John Street
  2. South of the World Trade Center area—the handful of blocks located south of the World Trade Center along Greenwich, Washington and West Streets
  3. Seaport district—characterized by century-old low-rise buildings and South Street Seaport; the seaport is "quiet, residential, and has an old world charm" according to one description.
File:Chamber of Commerce Building.jpg|thumb|left|The Chamber of Commerce Building at 65 Liberty Street, one of many historical buildings in the district
Federal Hall National Memorial, on the site of the first U.S. capitol and the first inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States, is located at the corner of Wall Street and Nassau Street.
The Financial District has a number of tourist attractions such as the South Street Seaport Historic District, newly renovated Pier 17, the New York City Police Museum, the Museum of American Finance, the National Museum of the American Indian, Trinity Church, St. Paul's Chapel, and the famous bull. Bowling Green is the starting point of traditional ticker-tape parades on Broadway, where here it is also known as the Canyon of Heroes. The Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Skyscraper Museum are both in adjacent Battery Park City which is also home to the Brookfield Place.
Another key anchor for the area is the New York Stock Exchange. City authorities realize its importance, and believed that it has "outgrown its neoclassical temple at the corner of Wall and Broad streets", and in 1998 offered substantial tax incentives to try to keep it in the Financial District. Plans to rebuild it were delayed by the September 11, 2001, attacks. The Exchange still occupies the same site. The Exchange is the locus for a large amount of technology and data. For example, to accommodate the three thousand persons who work directly on the Exchange floor requires 3,500 kilowatts of electricity, along with 8,000 phone circuits on the trading floor alone, and 200 miles of fiber-optic cable below ground.

Official landmarks

Buildings in the Financial District can have one of several types of official landmark designations:
  • The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency that is responsible for identifying and designating the city's landmarks and the buildings in the city's historic districts. New York City landmarks can be categorized into one of several groups: individual, interior, and scenic landmarks.
  • The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance.
  • The National Historic Landmark focuses on places of significance in American history, architecture, engineering, or culture; all NHL sites are also on the NRHP.
The following landmarks are situated south of Morris Street and west of Whitehall Street/Broadway:
  • 21 West Street
  • Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, Bowling Green
  • Bowling Green fence
  • Bowling Green
  • Bowling Green Offices Building, 11 Broadway
  • Castle Clinton, the Battery
  • City Pier A, the Battery
  • Cunard Building, 25 Broadway
  • Downtown Athletic Club, 19 West Street
  • Interborough Rapid Transit System, Battery Park Control House
  • International Mercantile Marine Company Building, 1 Broadway
  • James Watson House, 7 State Street
  • Whitehall Building, 17 Battery Place
The following landmarks are located west of Broadway between Morris and Barclay Streets:
  • American Stock Exchange Building
  • 65 Broadway
  • 90 West Street
  • 94 Greenwich Street
  • 195 Broadway
  • Empire Building, 71 Broadway
  • New York County Lawyers' Association Building, 14 Vesey Street
  • Old New York Evening Post Building, 20 Vesey Street
  • Robert and Anne Dickey House, 67 Greenwich Street
  • St. George's Syrian Catholic Church, 103 Washington Street
  • St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway at Fulton Street
  • St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, 22 Barclay Street
  • Trinity and United States Realty Buildings, 111-115 Broadway
  • Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street
  • Verizon Building, 140 West Street
The following landmarks are located south of Wall Street and east of Broadway/Whitehall Street:
  • 1 Hanover Square
  • 1 Wall Street
  • 1 Wall Street Court
  • 1 William Street
  • 20 Exchange Place
  • 23 Wall Street
  • 26 Broadway
  • 55 Wall Street
  • American Bank Note Company Building, 70 Broad Street
  • Battery Maritime Building, South Street
  • Broad Exchange Building, 25 Broad Street
  • Delmonico's Building, 56 Beaver Street
  • First Precinct Police Station, 100 Old Slip
  • Fraunces Tavern, 54 Pearl Street
  • New York Stock Exchange Building, 8-18 Broad Street
  • Wall and Hanover Building, 59–63 Wall Street
The following landmarks are located east of Broadway between Wall Street and Maiden Lane:
  • 14 Wall Street
  • 28 Liberty Street
  • 40 Wall Street
  • 48 Wall Street
  • 56 Pine Street
  • 70 Pine Street
  • 90–94 Maiden Lane
  • American Surety Building, 100 Broadway
  • Chamber of Commerce Building, 65 Liberty Street
  • Down Town Association Building, 60 Pine Street
  • Equitable Building
  • Federal Hall National Memorial, 26 Wall Street
  • Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building, 33 Liberty Street
  • Liberty Tower, 55 Liberty Street
  • Marine Midland Building, 140 Broadway
The following landmarks are located east of Broadway and Park Row between Maiden Lane and the Brooklyn Bridge:
  • 5 Beekman Street
  • 63 Nassau Street
  • 150 Nassau Street
  • Bennett Building, 99 Nassau Street
  • Corbin Building, 13 John Street
  • Excelsior Power Company Building, 33–43 Gold Street
  • John Street Methodist Church, 44 John Street
  • Keuffel & Esser Company Building, 127 Fulton Street
  • Morse Building, 138-42 Nassau Street
  • New York Times Building, 41 Park Row
  • Park Row Building, 15 Park Row
  • Potter Building, 38 Park Row
The following landmarks apply to multiple distinct areas:
  • Fraunces Tavern Block Historic District
  • South Street Seaport Historic District
  • Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York
  • Stone Street Historic District
  • Wall Street, Fulton Street station interiors