Wall Street & the Financial District: Private 2.5 hr Walking Tour
A very modern trading hub, it is steeped in American History dating back to the 17th century - both triumphal and shameful. Its iconic skyscrapers are built alongside historic buildings like the Federal Hall. From the American Revolution to the Slave Trade, the founding of the New York Stock Exchange to the Great Depression, becoming the global financial superpower to the tragic events of 9/11, Wall Street is full of the stories that have made, broken, and remade modern America, and the wider world.
On your fascinating private tour of Wall Street you will:
- See the magnificent New York City Hall, the seat of New York’s political and civic power, it is the oldest city hall in the US, completed in 1812;
- Explore the historic area of Wall Street and New York’s buzzing financial district in lower Manhattan - learning its many stories that shaped modern America;
- Walk through City Hall Park and hear about the Liberty Pole, the celebration of the repeal of the Stamp Act, the brutal punishment of slaves, the reading of the Declaration of Independence to George Washington and the Continental Army, and many other landmark historic events that have taken place here;
- Admire Saint Paul’s Chapel, the oldest surviving church in New York City built in 1766, where George Washington worshipped, a refuge from the atrocity of 9/11, and an ongoing sanctuary in the heart of the city;
- Stop outside the Federal Reserve Bank, built in the impressive Italian Renaissance style, it sits on the largest vault of gold reserves in the world;
- Walk through nearby Zuccotti Park - where the first coffee house was established in 1696 and where the first mass protests against British taxation, the Tea Act, and the East India Trading Company took place;
- Pass by the beautiful Trinity Church, the Anglican church at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street built in the Gothic Revival style - and where Alexander Hamilton (of musical fame!) is buried;
- Admire the impressive Federal Hall, a Greco-Roman-style building where George Washington was sworn in as the nation’s first president;
- Stop outside the New York Stock Exchange and learn the Buttonwood Agreement of 1792 that set out the trading rules that underpin this international trading hub to this very day;
- Take a photo with the Fearless Girl statue and the Charging Bull and hear about its indomitable symbolism after the 2008 financial crash;
- Walk down Stone Street - the quaint, oldest cobblestone street of New Amsterdam, that became New York;
- Pass by the Fraunces Tavern Museum, the historic building where George Washington gave his farewell speech to his soldiers in 1783;
- Learn about the fascinating and inspirational life of Alexander Hamilton - the man who established the US credit system (made more famous in recent times thanks to the smash hit Broadway musical Hamilton) outside the historic Custom House;
- End your tour at Bowling Green, the oldest park in NYC filled with Native American, Dutch, British and Revolutionary histories - and where Revolutionaries tore down a statue of King George III and turned it into ammunition to fight the British!
Enjoy an immersive and fascinating private walking tour of New York City’s famous financial district known around the world simply as “Wall Street”. A busy and vibrant area filled with historic buildings and skyscrapers, it borders the bright lights of theatrical Broadway and is steeped in America’s history, both tragic and triumphant.
The name Wall Street is taken from a wall built by Dutch settlers in the 17th Century to keep out the British from New Amsterdam as the city was first called. In 1664 the Dutch surrendered the city to the British who renamed it New York. Wall Street is now bigger than just one street - and around the world refers to the whole of New York’s financial centre.
Beginning at New York City Hall area, your expert guide will show you around this buzzing district and relate the history of this place that has played such a pivotal role in America’s story from the slave trade to the American Revolution, the Great Depression to 9/11, and of course, the establishment of the USA as a global financial superpower.
