17 Take a train at either Franklin and Varick Streets or Varick and West Broadway.
CONNECTING THE WALKS
Walk north on Varick Street about 14 blocks for the start of Walk 10 (West Village). To reach the start of Walk 5 (Civic Center and Chinatown), walk about three blocks east on Franklin Street, then turn right on Broadway and walk about seven blocks to the City Hall subway station, on your left.
The Winter Garden at Brookfield Place: Palm trees in lower Manhattan? Who knew?
3 WALL STREET/FINANCIAL DISTRICT: RISEN FROM THE ASHES
BOUNDARIES: Trinity Place, Wall St., William St., Greenwich St.
DISTANCE: 3 miles
SUBWAY: 4 or 5 to Wall St.
Manhattan’s Financial District has always been about so much more than the coming and going of fortunes; it is a fascinating place freighted with layers of historical significance. The American Revolution made its mark here. The first capital of the United States was located here. The stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987, along with the economic crisis of 2008, haunt the area. And Tuesday, September 11, 2001, forever changed this neighborhood—more than any other—with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Wall Street and its environs are always teeming with activity, but amid the hustle and bustle of workers there is room for the tourist, the pensive walker. A slow, observant walk through the streets will always stay with you. Take special care when you visit Trinity Church, Federal Hall, and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
The subway station on Broadway has more than one exit. If you need to, ask someone to point you to Wall Street and Broadway—or look for the steeple of Trinity Church and walk toward it. There has been a Trinity Church in Manhattan since the late 1690s; the present building, its third, dates to 1846 and was designed by Richard Upjohn. A distinctive feature of this somber brown Gothic Revival structure is the diamond-shaped clock facing south. In addition to the classic statues of saints, note the huge spiderlike sculpture made from a giant sycamore downed on 9/11.
Walk into the cemetery to the left of the church’s main entrance, and roam. There are military memorial stones, including that of Captain James Lawrence, famous for the phrase “Don’t give up the ship!” The most eye-catching sight is the statue of stony-faced John Watts, a lawyer and member of the US House of Representatives. Many other tombstones are cracked and hard to read from fading, but the two best-known residents here are steamboat inventor Robert Fulton and Alexander Hamilton.Walk into the northern section of the churchyard to see the grave of Albert Gallatin (a member of Congress and a founder of New York University), the Astor Cross (the Astor family has a long, prominent history in New York City), the Soldiers’ Monument, the Firemen’s Memorial Monument, and others. Small patches of herb garden are interspersed.Go through the church’s marvelous main entrance, comprising a carved wooden Christ-and-saints set and brass doors with biblical scenes. Even the ceiling of the vestibule is gorgeous. As you walk around and admire the church interior, you may stumble upon a live musical performance.
Leave the church and face the other side of Broadway. At #100 is the American Surety Building, an early skyscraper from the 1890s. Among its many features are an ornate entrance and caryatids that seem almost alive. To the right, at #1 Wall Street, is the cavernous Bank of New York (now BNY Mellon) Building. An engraving in the Art Deco tower proudly announces “1930” (the year construction was begun), with contemporary feathered designs carved into the limestone. Look for the plaque titled SITE OF WALL OF NEW AMSTERDAM—yes, Wall Street is named for a long-gone wall built in the 17th century to protect the Dutch settlement that became New York City. The soaring glass entrance of the building is beautiful: The copper-colored walls in the lobby, coupled with the glass outside, make it seem as though the interior were encased in amber.
Walk on Wall Street to Broad Street and make a right to see the New York Stock Exchange, with its iconic Corinthian-columned facade. It used to have a visitors’ gallery, but since 9/11 it’s difficult to get in—or even too close—without a major security clearance.
Turn back to Wall Street and admire Federal Hall, a handsome Greek Revival building with steep steps (a wheelchair-accessible entrance is around the corner). This building has an amazing history: It served first as New York’s city hall, then as the first capitol of the fledgling United States. It was also the site of George Washington’s inauguration. If you use the main entrance, bid hello to the eagle statue above the clock.
Upon leaving Federal Hall, walk left to 37 Wall St., the Tiffany & Co. building, a 1907 Beaux Arts treasure originally built for Morgan Guaranty.
Make a left on William Street. The building at the northwest corner houses the Museum of American Finance. Affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, it’s the only independent museum in the United States dedicated to the history of money, banking, and business. Go one block to Our Lady of Victory Church, a Roman Catholic site also known as the War Memorial Church. It was dedicated in 1947, but its redbrick Georgian Revival design makes it look older. The sanctuary has a stirring half-rose stained-glass window of a sunrise over lower Manhattan, highlighting the Twin Towers that fell on 9/11.
Continue along William Street until you reach the triangular park at Liberty Street, Louise Nevelson Plaza. Nevelson designed the sculptures and other aspects of the small park, which opened in 1978 and was one of the first plazas in New York City to be named for a woman, and the first to be named for an artist. To the left, along Liberty Street at Nassau Street, is the stern-looking Federal Reserve Bank of New York, built in a subdued Renaissance Revival style. Guided tours are available; among the locations you see is where gold bars are stored in a sub-basement.
Walk left along Liberty Street. At 55 Liberty stands a 33-story skyscraper built in 1909; it’s now a largely residential building called Liberty Tower. Next door to the left is #65, the former Chamber of Commerce building (now a Chinese bank), which has ostentatious round windows on one level and dormer windows higher up. Walk farther, and at Broadway you’ll come to the large, dark, modern office building that houses the investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman. The plaza in front is home to the curious red sculpture The Cube by Isamu Noguchi.
Cross Broadway and enter Zuccotti Park. This used to be called Liberty Plaza Park because 1 Liberty Plaza (a.k.a. the US Steel Building) is the large modern building to the right. (I worked a student internship in that building in 1985, for the Financial News Network.) Zuccotti Park, which was the site of the Occupy Wall Street encampment, has a large, bright-red modernist sculpture on the Cedar Street side and a sunken seating area with lush plantings. Walk around, take a rest on a bench, and admire a side view of the ornate building on the left at 115 Broadway, the US Realty Building. Decorating it are a few styles of gargoyles, some of them quite macabre.
Walk through the park to Trinity Place and check out the statue of a seated businessman rummaging through his briefcase. Called Double Check, it was sculpted by J. Seward Johnson. (Note the vintage cassette recorder in the businessman’s case.)
Cross Cedar Street on the south side of Zuccotti Park, and walk on Trinity Place. Across the street, look onto narrow Thames Street. On the next block of Trinity Place, see #86, the former site of the American Stock Exchange, opposite the west side of Trinity Church and its cemetery. Designated as a landmark by the city in 2012, the handsome Art Deco structure has remained vacant since 2008.
Walk back to Liberty Street, then go left on it. At #120 is the 9/11 Tribute Center, a project of the nonprofit September 11th Families’ Association. Its exhibits are powerful, but in my opinion, the tribute at 124 Liberty is even more moving. Here, at the FDNY Ladder