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( Wall Street)
Wall Street is a street in lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It runs east from Broadway to South Street on the East River, through the historical center of the Financial District. Wall Street was the first permanent home of the New York Stock Exchange; over time Wall Street became the name of the surrounding geographic neighborhood.[1] Wall Street is also shorthand (or a metonym) for the "influential financial interests" of the American financial industry, which is centered in the New York City area.[2] Several major U.S. stock and other exchanges remain headquartered on Wall Street and in the Financial District, including the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, NYMEX, and NYBOT. The name of the street derives from the fact that during the 17th century, Wall Street formed the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement. In the 1640s basic picket and plank fences denoted plots and residences in the colony.[3] Later, on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant, in part using African slaves,[4] led the Dutch in the construction of a stronger stockade. A strengthened 12-foot (4&_160;m) wall[5] of timber and earth was created by 1653 fortified by palisades.[5][3] The wall was created, and strengthened over time, as a defense against attack from various Native American tribes, New England colonists, and the British. In 1685 surveyors laid out Wall Street along the lines of the original stockade.[5] The wall was dismantled by the British in 1699. And while the original name referred to the Walloons,[citation needed] the French speaking Belgians that helped populate this settlement in the beginning,[citation needed] the name was now easily taken to refer to the wall that once was here. In the late 18th century, there was a buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street under which traders and speculators would gather to trade informally. In 1792, the traders formalized their association with the Buttonwood Agreement. This was the origin of the New York Stock Exchange.[6] In 1789, Federal Hall and Wall Street was the scene of the United States' first presidential inauguration. George Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall overlooking Wall Street on April 30, 1789. This was also the location of the passing of the Bill Of Rights
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