The Financial District of
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
, also known as FiDi, is a
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
located on the southern tip of
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. 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
New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...
settlement in the late 17th century. The district comprises the offices and headquarters of many of the city's major
financial institution
A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial ins ...
s, including the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
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
The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan#Manhattan Island, Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. The park is bounded by Battery Place on the north, with Bowling ...
and
Battery Park City. The former
World Trade Center complex was located in the neighborhood until the
September 11, 2001, attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Hijackers in the September 11 attacks#Hijackers, Nineteen terrorists hijacked four com ...
; 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 (along
Fulton Street and John Street) 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
metonym
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word "wikt:suit, suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such ...
ously to the financial markets as a whole (and is also a street in the district), 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 (
Battery Park City,
Civic Center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...
,
Greenwich South,
Seaport
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manc ...
, and
Tribeca).
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 (worth $100 billion), 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
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
vault beneath the Federal Reserve and that "staring down at the trading floor was as exciting as going to the
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...
".
Architecture
The Financial District's architecture is generally rooted in the
Gilded Age, though there are also some
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
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:
# The Financial District proper—particularly along John Street
# South of the World Trade Center area—the handful of blocks located south of the World Trade Center along
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
, Washington and West Streets
# 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.
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
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
, 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
A bull is an intact (i.e., not Castration, castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol cattle in r ...
.
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 (formerly World Financial Center).
Another key anchor for the area is the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
. 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 (NYCL) can be categorized into one of several groups: individual (exterior), interior, and scenic landmarks.
*The
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
(NRHP) 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
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
(NHL) 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 (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, Bowling Green (NHL, NRHP, NYCL, NYCL interior)
*
Bowling Green fence (NYCL)
*
Bowling Green (NRHP)
*
Bowling Green Offices Building, 11 Broadway (NYCL)
*
Castle Clinton, the Battery (NRHP, NYCL)
*
City Pier A
Pier A, also known as City Pier A, is a pier in the Hudson River at Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It was built from 1884 to 1886 as the headquarters of the Commissioner of Docks and Ferries of the City of New York, New York C ...
, the Battery (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Cunard Building, 25 Broadway (NYCL, NYCL interior)
*
Downtown Athletic Club, 19 West Street (NYCL)
*
Interborough Rapid Transit System, Battery Park Control House (NRHP, NYCL)
*
International Mercantile Marine Company Building, 1 Broadway (NRHP, NYCL)
*
James Watson House, 7 State Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Whitehall Building, 17 Battery Place (NYCL)
The following landmarks are located west of Broadway between Morris and Barclay Streets:
*
American Stock Exchange Building (NHL, NRHP, NYCL)
*
65 Broadway (NYCL)
*
90 West Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
94 Greenwich Street (NYCL)
*
195 Broadway
195 Broadway, also known as the Telephone Building, Telegraph Building, or Western Union Building, is an early skyscraper on Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. T ...
(NYCL, NYCL interior)
*
Empire Building, 71 Broadway (NRHP, NYCL)
*
New York County Lawyers' Association Building, 14 Vesey Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Old New York Evening Post Building, 20 Vesey Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Robert and Anne Dickey House, 67 Greenwich Street (NYCL)
*
St. George's Syrian Catholic Church, 103 Washington Street (NYCL)
*
St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway at Fulton Street (NHL, NRHP, NYCL)
*
St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, 22 Barclay Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Trinity and United States Realty Buildings, 111-115 Broadway (both NYCL)
*
Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Verizon Building, 140 West Street (NRHP, NYCL, NYCL interior)
The following landmarks are located south of Wall Street and east of Broadway/Whitehall Street:
*
1 Hanover Square (NHL, NRHP, NYCL)
*
1 Wall Street (NYCL)
*
1 Wall Street Court (NRHP, NYCL)
*
1 William Street (NYCL)
*
20 Exchange Place (NYCL)
*
23 Wall Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
26 Broadway (NYCL)
*
55 Wall Street (NRHP, NYCL, NYCL interior)
*
American Bank Note Company Building, 70 Broad Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Battery Maritime Building, South Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Broad Exchange Building, 25 Broad Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Delmonico's Building,
56 Beaver Street (NYCL)
*
First Precinct Police Station, 100 Old Slip (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Fraunces Tavern, 54 Pearl Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
New York Stock Exchange Building, 8-18 Broad Street (NHL, NRHP, NYCL)
*
Wall and Hanover Building, 59–63 Wall Street (NRHP)
The following landmarks are located east of Broadway between Wall Street and Maiden Lane:
*
14 Wall Street (NYCL)
*
28 Liberty Street (NYCL)
*
40 Wall Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
48 Wall Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
56 Pine Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
70 Pine Street (NYCL, NYCL interior)
*
90–94 Maiden Lane (NYCL)
*
American Surety Building, 100 Broadway (NYCL)
*
Chamber of Commerce Building, 65 Liberty Street (NHL, NRHP, NYCL)
*
Down Town Association Building, 60 Pine Street (NYCL)
*
Equitable Building (NHL, NRHP, NYCL)
*
Federal Hall National Memorial, 26 Wall Street (NHL, NRHP, NYCL, NYCL interior)
*
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building, 33 Liberty Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Liberty Tower, 55 Liberty Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Marine Midland Building, 140 Broadway (NYCL)
The following landmarks are located east of Broadway and Park Row between Maiden Lane and the Brooklyn Bridge:
*
5 Beekman Street (NYCL)
*
63 Nassau Street (NYCL)
*
150 Nassau Street (NYCL)
*
Bennett Building, 99 Nassau Street (NYCL)
*
Corbin Building, 13 John Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Excelsior Power Company Building, 33–43 Gold Street (NYCL)
*
John Street Methodist Church, 44 John Street (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Keuffel & Esser Company Building, 127 Fulton Street (NYCL)
*
Morse Building, 138-42 Nassau Street (NYCL)
*
New York Times Building, 41 Park Row (NYCL)
*
Park Row Building, 15 Park Row (NRHP, NYCL)
*
Potter Building
The Potter Building is a building in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building occupies a full block along Beekman Street with the addresses 38 Park Row (Manhattan), Park Row to its west ...
, 38 Park Row (NYCL)
The following landmarks apply to multiple distinct areas:
*Fraunces Tavern Block Historic District (NRHP, NYCL)
*
South Street Seaport Historic District (NRHP, NYCL; includes numerous individual landmarks)
*Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York (NYCL)
*
Stone Street Historic District (NYCL)
*
Wall Street,
Fulton Street station interiors (NYCL)
History
New Amsterdam
What is now the Financial District was once part of
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...
, situated on the strategic southern tip of the island of Manhattan. New Amsterdam was derived from
Fort Amsterdam, meant to defend the
fur trade operations of the
Dutch West India Company in the North River (
Hudson River). In 1624, it became a provincial extension of the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...
and was designated as the capital of the province of
New Netherland in 1625. By 1655, the population of New Netherland had grown to 2,000 people, with 1,500 living in New Amsterdam. By 1664, the population of New Netherland had skyrocketed to almost 9,000 people, 2,500 of whom lived in New Amsterdam, 1,000 lived near
Fort Orange, and the remainder in other towns and villages. In 1664 the English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York City.
19th and 20th centuries
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the
corporate culture of New York was a primary center for the construction of
early skyscrapers, and was rivaled only by
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
on the American continent. There were also residential sections, such as the Bowling Green section between Broadway and the
Hudson River, and between
Vesey Street and the Battery. The
Bowling Green area was described as "Wall Street's
back yard" with poor people, high
infant mortality rates, and the "worst housing conditions in the city".
As a result of the construction, looking at New York City from the east, one can see two distinct clumps of tall buildings—the Financial District on the left, and the taller
Midtown neighborhood on the right. The
geology
Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...
of Manhattan is well-suited for tall buildings, with a solid mass of
bedrock underneath Manhattan providing a firm foundation for tall buildings. Skyscrapers are expensive to build, but the scarcity of land in the Financial District made it suitable for the construction of skyscrapers.
Business writer
John Brooks in his book ''Once in Golconda'' considered the start of the 20th century period to have been the area's heyday.
The address of
23 Wall Street, the headquarters of
J. P. Morgan & Company, known as ''The Corner'', was "the precise center, geographical as well as metaphorical, of financial America and even of the financial world".
On September 16, 1920, close to the corner of Wall and
Broad Street, the busiest corner of the Financial District and across the offices of the
Morgan Bank, a
powerful bomb exploded. It killed 38 and seriously injured 143 people. The area was subjected to numerous threats; one bomb threat in 1921 led to detectives sealing off the area to "prevent a repetition of the Wall Street bomb explosion".
Late-20th century growth
During most of the 20th century, the Financial District was a business community with practically only offices which emptied out at night. Writing in ''
The Death and Life of Great American Cities'' in 1961, urbanist
Jane Jacobs
Jane Isabel Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book ''The Death and Life of Great American Ci ...
described a "deathlike stillness that settles on the district after 5:30 and all day Saturday and Sunday". But there has been a change towards greater residential use of the area, pushed forwards by technological changes and shifting market conditions. The general pattern is for several hundred thousand workers to commute into the area during the day, sometimes by sharing a
taxicab
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...
from other parts of the city as well as from
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
and
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, and then leave at night. In 1970 only 833 people lived "south of Chambers Street"; by 1990, 13,782 people were residents with the addition of areas such as
Battery Park City and
Southbridge Towers.
Battery Park City was built on 92 acres of landfill, and 3,000 people moved there beginning about 1982, but by 1986 there was evidence of more shops and stores and a park, along with plans for more residential development.
Construction of the World Trade Center
The construction of the first World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center complex in New York City was conceived as an urban renewal project to help revitalize Lower Manhattan spearheaded by David Rockefeller. The project was develop ...
began in 1966, but the
World Trade Center had trouble attracting tenants when completed. Nonetheless, some substantial firms purchased space there. Its impressive height helped make it a visual landmark for drivers and pedestrians. In some respects, the nexus of the Financial District moved physically from Wall Street to the World Trade Center complex and surrounding buildings such as the
Deutsche Bank Building,
90 West Street, and
One Liberty Plaza. Real estate growth during the latter part of the 1990s was significant, with deals and new projects happening in the Financial District and elsewhere in Manhattan; one firm invested more than $24 billion in various projects, many in the Wall Street area.
In 1998, the NYSE and the city struck a $900 million deal which kept the
NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
from moving across the river to
Jersey City; the deal was described as the "largest in city history to prevent a corporation from leaving town".
A competitor to the NYSE,
NASDAQ, moved its headquarters from
Washington to New York.

In 1987, the stock market plunged
and, in the relatively brief recession following,
lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
lost 100,000 jobs according to one estimate.
Since telecommunications costs were coming down, banks and
brokerage firms could move away from the Financial District to more affordable locations.
The recession of 1990–91 was marked by office vacancy rates downtown which were "persistently high" and with some buildings "standing empty".
Residential neighborhood
In 1995, city authorities offered the ''Lower Manhattan Revitalization Plan'' which offered incentives to convert commercial properties to residential use.
According to one description in 1996, "The area dies at night ... It needs a neighborhood, a community."
During the past two decades there has been a shift towards greater residential living areas in the Financial District, with incentives from city authorities in some instances.
Many empty office buildings have been converted to lofts and apartments; for example, the
Liberty Tower, the office building of oil magnate
Harry Sinclair, was converted to a co-op in 1979.
In 1996, a fifth of buildings and warehouses were empty, and many were converted to living areas.
Some conversions met with problems, such as aging gargoyles on building exteriors having to be expensively restored to meet with current building codes.
Residents in the area have sought to have a supermarket, a movie theater, a pharmacy, more schools, and a "good diner".
The discount retailer named ''Job Lot'' used to be located at the World Trade Center but moved to Church Street; merchants bought extra unsold items at steep prices and sold them as a discount to consumers, and shoppers included "thrifty homemakers and browsing retirees" who "rubbed elbows with City Hall workers and Wall Street executives"; but the firm went bust in 1993.
There were reports that the number of residents increased by 60% during the 1990s to about 25,000 although a second estimate (based on the 2000 census based on a different map) places the residential population in 2000 at 12,042. By 2001 there were several grocery stores, dry cleaners, and two grade schools and a top high school.
21st century
September 11 attacks
In 2001, the ''Big Board'', as some termed the NYSE, was described as the world's "largest and most prestigious stock market".
When the
World Trade Center was destroyed on
September 11, 2001, it left an architectural void as new developments since the 1970s had played off the complex aesthetically. The attacks "crippled" the communications network.
One estimate was that 45% of the neighborhood's "best office space" had been lost.
The physical destruction was immense:
Still, the NYSE was determined to re-open on September 17, almost a week after the attack.
After September 11, the financial services industry went through a downturn with a sizable drop in year-end bonuses of $6.5 billion, according to one estimate from a state comptroller's office.
To guard against a vehicular bombing in the area, authorities built concrete barriers, and found ways over time to make them more aesthetically appealing by spending $5000 to $8000 apiece on
bollards. Several streets in the neighborhood, including Wall and Broad Streets, were blocked off by specially designed bollards:
Redevelopment
The destruction of the World Trade Center spurred development on a scale that had not been seen in decades.
Tax incentives provided by federal, state and local governments encouraged development. A new
World Trade Center complex centered on
Daniel Libeskind's
Memory Foundations was built after the 9/11 attacks. The centerpiece, which is now a tall structure, opened in 2014 as the
One World Trade Center.
Fulton Center, a new transit complex intended to improve access to the area, opened in 2014,
followed by the
World Trade Center Transportation Hub in 2016.
Additionally, in 2007, the
Maharishi Global Financial Capital of New York opened headquarters at
70 Broad Street near the NYSE, in an effort to seek investors.
By the 2010s, the Financial District had become established as a residential and commercial neighborhood. Several new skyscrapers such as
125 Greenwich Street and
130 William were being developed, while other structures such as
1 Wall Street, the
Equitable Building, and the
Woolworth Building were extensively renovated. Additionally, there were more signs of dogwalkers at night and a 24-hour neighborhood, although the general pattern of crowds during the working hours and emptiness at night was still apparent. There were also ten hotels and thirteen museums in 2010.
In 2007 the French fashion retailer
Hermès opened a store in the Financial District to sell items such as a "$4,700 custom-made leather dressage saddle or a $47,000 limited edition alligator briefcase".
However, there are reports of panhandlers like elsewhere in the city.
By 2010 the residential population had increased to 24,400 residents.
and the area was growing with luxury high-end apartments and upscale retailers.
On October 29, 2012, New York and New Jersey were inundated by
Hurricane Sandy. Its 14-foot-high storm surge, a local record, caused massive street flooding in many parts of Lower Manhattan. Power to the area was knocked out by a transformer explosion at a
Con Edison plant. With mass transit in New York City already suspended as a precaution even before the storm hit, the New York Stock Exchange and other financial exchanges were closed for two days, re-opening on October 31. From 2013 to 2021, nearly two hundred buildings in the Financial District were converted to residential use. Furthermore, between 2001 and 2021, the proportion of companies in the area that were in the finance and insurance industries declined from 55 to 30 percent.
Demographics
For census purposes, the New York City government classifies the Financial District as part of a larger neighborhood tabulation area called Battery Park City-Lower Manhattan. Based on data from the
2010 United States Census, the population of Battery Park City-Lower Manhattan was 39,699, an increase of 19,611 (97.6%) from the 20,088 counted in
2000
2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year.
Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .
[Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010](_blank)
, Population Division - New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 65.4% (25,965)
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 3.2% (1,288)
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.1% (35)
Native American, 20.2% (8,016)
Asian, 0.0% (17)
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.4% (153) from
other races, and 3.0% (1,170) from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Latino of any race were 7.7% (3,055) of the population.
[Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010](_blank)
, Population Division - New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.
The entirety of Community District 1, which comprises the Financial District and other Lower Manhattan neighborhoods, had 63,383 inhabitants as of
NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 85.8 years.
This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods.
Most inhabitants are young to middle-aged adults: half (50%) are between the ages of 25–44, while 14% are between 0–17, and 18% between 45–64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 11% and 7% respectively.
As of 2017, the median
household income in Community Districts 1 and 2 (including
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
and
SoHo) was $144,878.
In 2018, an estimated 9% of Financial District and Lower Manhattan residents lived in poverty, compared to 14% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. One in twenty-five residents (4%) were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 38% in Financial District and Lower Manhattan, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Financial District and Lower Manhattan are considered high-income relative to the rest of the city and not
gentrifying.
The population of the Financial District has grown to an estimated 61,000 residents as of 2018,
up from 43,000 as of 2014, which in turn was nearly double the 23,000 recorded at the 2000 Census.
Political representation
Local
In the
New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...
, the Financial District is part of
District 1, represented by Democrat
Christopher Marte.
List of
aldermen/councilmen who have represented the Financial District
*1922–1930:
Martin F. Tanahey, Democratic
*1938–1947: ''Borough-wide proportional representation''
*1965–1974:
Saul Sharison
*1974–1977:
Anthony Gaeta, Democratic
*1977–1985:
Nicholas LaPorte, Democratic
*1985:
Frank Fossella, Democratic
*1986–1990:
Susan Molinari, Republican
*1990–1991:
Alfred C. Cerullo III, Republican
*1991–2001:
Kathryn E. Freed, Democratic
*2002–2010:
Alan Gerson, Democratic
*2010–2021:
Margaret Chin, Democratic
*2022–present:
Christopher Marte, Democratic
State
The Financial District is part of
New York's 27th State Senate district,
represented by
Brian P. Kavanagh. In the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Ass ...
, the neighborhood is in the 61st, 65th, and 66th districts,
represented respectively by
Charles Fall,
Grace Lee, and
Deborah Glick.
Federal
Politically, the Financial District in
New York's 10th congressional district;
, it is represented by
Dan Goldman.
Police and crime
Financial District and Lower Manhattan are patrolled by the 1st Precinct of the
NYPD, located at 16 Ericsson Place.
The 1st Precinct ranked 63rd safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. Though the number of crimes is low compared to other NYPD precincts, the residential population is also much lower. , with a non-fatal assault rate of 24 per 100,000 people, Financial District and Lower Manhattan's rate of
violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 152 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.
The 1st Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 86.3% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 1 murder, 23 rapes, 80 robberies, 61 felony assaults, 85 burglaries, 1,085 grand larcenies, and 21 grand larcenies auto in 2018.
Fire safety
The Financial District is served by three
New York City Fire Department
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing Fi ...
(FDNY) fire stations:
*Engine Company 4/Ladder Company 15/Decon Unit – 42 South Street
*Engine Company 6 – 49 Beekman Street
*
Engine Company 10/Ladder Company 10 – 124 Liberty Street
Health
,
preterm births and births to teenage mothers are less common in Financial District and Lower Manhattan than in other places citywide. In Financial District and Lower Manhattan, there were 77 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 2.2 teenage births per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide), though the teenage birth rate is based on a small sample size.
Financial District and Lower Manhattan have a low population of residents who are
uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 4%, less than the citywide rate of 12%, though this was based on a small sample size.
The concentration of
fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of
air pollutant, in Financial District and Lower Manhattan is , more than the city average.
Sixteen percent of Financial District and Lower Manhattan residents are
smokers, which is more than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers.
In Financial District and Lower Manhattan, 4% of residents are
obese, 3% are
diabetic, and 15% have
high blood pressure
Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms itself. It is, however, a major ri ...
, the lowest rates in the city—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively.
In addition, 5% of children are obese, the lowest rate in the city, compared to the citywide average of 20%.
Ninety-six percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is more than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 88% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", more than the city's average of 78%.
For every supermarket in Financial District and Lower Manhattan, there are 6
bodegas.
The nearest major hospital is
NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital in the Civic Center area.
Post offices and ZIP Codes
Financial District is located within several
ZIP Codes. The largest ZIP Codes are 10004, centered around the Battery; 10005, around Wall Street; 10006, around the World Trade Center; 10007, around
City Hall; and 10038, around South Street Seaport. There are also several smaller ZIP Codes spanning one block, including 10045 around the
Federal Reserve Bank; 10271 around the
Equitable Building; and 10279 around the
Woolworth Building.
The
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
operates four post offices in the Financial District:
*
Church Street Station – 90 Church Street
*Hanover Station – 1 Hanover Street
*Peck Slip Station – 114 John Street
*Whitehall Station – 1 Whitehall Street
Education
Financial District and Lower Manhattan generally have a higher rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city . The vast majority of residents age 25 and older (84%) have a college education or higher, while 4% have less than a high school education and 12% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 64% of Manhattan residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher.
The percentage of Financial District and Lower Manhattan students excelling in math rose from 61% in 2000 to 80% in 2011, and reading achievement increased from 66% to 68% during the same time period.
The Financial District is home to
Pace University's New York City Campus, one of the oldest Universities in New York City.
Financial District and Lower Manhattan's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is lower than the rest of New York City. In Financial District and Lower Manhattan, 6% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per
school year, less than the citywide average of 20%.
Additionally, 96% of high school students in Financial District and Lower Manhattan graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.
Schools

The
New York City Department of Education operates the following public schools in the Financial District:
*Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women (grades 9–12)
*Spruce Street School (grades PK–8)
*
Millennium High School (grades 9–12)
*
Leadership and Public Service High School (grades 9–12)
*Manhattan Academy for Arts and Languages (grades 9–12)
*
High School of Economics and Finance (grades 9–12)
Libraries
The
New York Public Library (NYPL) operates two branches nearby. The New Amsterdam branch is located at 9 Murray Street near Broadway. It was established on the ground floor of an office building in 1989. The
Battery Park City branch is located at 175 North End Avenue near Murray Street. Completed in 2010, the two-story branch is NYPL's first
LEED-certified branch.
Transportation
The following
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
stations are located in the Financial District:
*
Bowling Green,
Wall Street ()
*
Broad Street ()
*
Chambers–WTC–Park Place–Cortlandt Street ()
*
City Hall,
Rector Street ()
*
Fulton Street ()
*
Rector Street,
WTC Cortlandt ()
*
South Ferry/Whitehall Street ()
The largest transit hub,
Fulton Center, was completed in 2014 after a $1.4 billion reconstruction project necessitated by the September 11, 2001, attacks, and involves at least five different sets of platforms. This transit hub was expected to serve 300,000 daily riders as of late 2014. The
World Trade Center Transportation Hub and PATH station opened in 2016.
MTA Regional Bus Operations also operates several bus routes in the Financial District, namely the routes running north–south through the area, and the routes running west–east through the area. There are also many
MTA express bus routes running through the Financial District. The
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation started operating a free shuttle bus, the Downtown Connection, in 2003; the route circulates around the Financial District during the daytime.
Ferry services are also concentrated downtown, including the
Staten Island Ferry at the
Whitehall Terminal;
NYC Ferry at
Pier 11/Wall Street and
Battery Park City Ferry Terminal; and service to
Governors Island at the
Battery Maritime Building.
Tallest buildings
Gallery
File:New York Stock Exchange LC-USZ62-124933.jpg, The Broad Street facade of the New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
File:2013 Federal Reserve Bank of New York from west.jpg, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York building
File:J. P. Morgan & Company Building 23 Wall Street.jpg, The former House of Morgan building at 23 Wall Street
File:USA-NYC-Federal Hall National Memorial.JPG, Federal Hall, once the U.S. Custom House, now a museum, with the towers of Wall Street behind it
File:One Liberty Plaza 2007.jpg, One Liberty Plaza, one of the many modern skyscrapers in the area
See also
*
Economy of New York City
References
External links
*
Photographs of Financial DistrictWikipages Financial District a wiki-based business directory for the Financial District.
{{Authority control
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
Economy of New York City
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
Neighborhoods in Manhattan