60 Fun Facts About Wall Street

Wall Street runs through the financial district of which US metropolis?

It runs eight blocks through Lower Manhattan, from Broadway to the East River.

Roughly how long is Wall Street?

It runs eight city blocks between Broadway and South Street on the East River.

What did the Dutch call the street when it was part of New Amsterdam?

The name means the Belt, and was also used for Amsterdam's own outer barrier street.

Between which years did an actual wall stand along the street?

It was removed once the city had grown well beyond it.

Who ordered the original wall built at the start of the first Anglo-Dutch war?

He feared an overland attack by English troops from New England.

What was the original wall made of?

It ran 2,340 feet, stood 9 feet tall, and was built by enslaved Africans and white colonists.

The Dutch named the wall's two stone bastions Hollandia and Zeelandia after what?

By the late 1600s the wall encircled most of the city.

What did the New York Common Council establish at the foot of Wall Street in December 1711?

The city taxed every person bought and sold there.

Which event took place on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street on April 30, 1789?

The building also hosted the First Congress before the capital moved.

Which founding father, architect of the US financial system, is buried at Trinity Church on Wall Street?

Steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton lies in the same churchyard.

How many brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement in 1792?

They agreed to deal only with each other, cutting out the auctioneers.

Where was the Buttonwood Agreement signed?

The brokers moved into the Tontine Coffee House at Wall and Water streets the following year.

What commission rate did the Buttonwood brokers agree to charge?

The other provision was that they would deal only with each other, cutting out auctioneers.

What is the nickname of the New York Stock Exchange?

It is the world's largest exchange by market capitalisation.

Which holding company, itself listed under the ticker ICE, owns the NYSE?

The deal to take over the exchange closed in 2013.

In what year did the NYSE move into its current Beaux Arts building at 18 Broad Street?

The neighbouring 11 Wall Street building followed in 1922.

At what time is the NYSE opening bell rung?

The closing bell rings at 4 pm Eastern Time.

What colour is the button that rings the NYSE's main opening and closing bell?

An orange button signals a moment of silence and a red one controls a backup bell.

What was the original signal to start and stop trading before the bell?

The gavel is still used alongside the bell today.

Who became the first female member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1967?

Women had first been allowed on the trading floor in 1943, while men were away at war.

Which activist group chained themselves to the NYSE balcony in 1989 with a banner reading SELL WELLCOME?

The target was drug maker Burroughs Wellcome and the price of AIDS drug AZT.

Why did the NYSE switch to all-electronic trading on March 23, 2020?

The floor reopened on May 26, 2020.

At what time of day did the 1920 Wall Street bombing take place, maximising lunchtime casualties?

The blast killed 30 people immediately and eight more later died of wounds.

How was the 1920 Wall Street bomb delivered?

The driver was seen leaving the vehicle and escaping down a side street.

What was packed around the dynamite in the 1920 bomb to act as shrapnel?

Investigators believe Galleanist anarchists were responsible; the case was never solved.

Which building was left with visible damage from the 1920 bombing?

The four-storey building at 23 Wall Street was known as the House of Morgan; the pockmarks were never repaired.

Which once-tallest skyscraper, built as the Bank of Manhattan Company Building, later became the Trump Building?

The 71-storey tower went up in 1929 and 1930.

Roughly how many shares traded on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, then a record?

Black Thursday, five days earlier, had seen 12.9 million shares change hands.

At what level did the Dow Jones Industrial Average peak on September 3, 1929?

It did not return to that closing peak for 25 years, until November 1954.

How many years did the Dow take to regain its 1929 peak?

It reached bottom at 41.22 in July 1932, an 89 percent loss.

Which Exchange vice-president placed a famous bid for US Steel shares on Black Thursday in 1929?

He was later imprisoned for embezzlement in the 1930s.

Which Yale economist reassured investors in October 1929 that their money was safe on Wall Street?

The market began slipping on October 3 and collapsed three weeks later.

By what percentage did the Dow fall on Black Monday, October 19, 1987?

The 508-point drop remains the largest one-day percentage fall in the index's history.

Which world market suffered the worst decline in the October 1987 crash, falling 45.8 percent?

Its exchange closed for days, fearing riots and total collapse.

Which Fed chairman issued a brief statement on October 20, 1987 promising liquidity to support the financial system?

Portfolio insurance and program trading were blamed for accelerating the fall.

What regulatory tools were introduced after 1987 to halt trading during exceptional falls?

Today's levels halt trading at 7, 13 and 20 percent drops in the S&P 500.

Who sculpted Charging Bull?

The Sicilian-born artist spent $360,000 of his own money to create and install it.

How did Charging Bull first arrive on Wall Street in December 1989?

The sculptor called it a Christmas gift to New Yorkers; police removed it the same day.

Where was Charging Bull installed in December 1989 after police removed it from the NYSE?

It was placed there on a temporary permit on December 20, 1989, and stayed for decades.

How much does Charging Bull weigh?

It stands 11 feet tall and 16 feet long.

Which asset manager commissioned the Fearless Girl statue installed in March 2017?

It was timed for International Women's Day and promoted a gender-diversity index fund.

Who sculpted Fearless Girl?

She modelled the figure on two children from Delaware.

Where was Fearless Girl relocated in December 2018?

A plaque with footprints marks her original spot facing the bull.

Where did the Occupy Wall Street protesters camp out for 59 days in 2011?

Police cleared the encampment shortly after midnight on November 15, 2011.

Which Canadian magazine issued the original call for the Occupy Wall Street protest?

Its editors Kalle Lasn and Micah White proposed a September 17 occupation.

What was Occupy Wall Street's best-known slogan?

It referred to income inequality between most Americans and a tiny economic elite.

Who directed the 1987 film Wall Street?

He made it as a tribute to his father Lou, a broker during the Great Depression.

Which real financier's speech inspired Gordon Gekko's 'greed is good' line?

Boesky had told Berkeley business graduates in 1986 that greed was all right.

What unusual awards double did the film Wall Street achieve?

Michael Douglas won Best Actor while Daryl Hannah won Worst Supporting Actress.

Which airline does Bud Fox tip Gekko about, using inside information from his father?

His father Carl leads the company's maintenance workers' union.

Which brokerage founder ran Stratton Oakmont, the firm portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street?

The 2013 dark comedy covers securities fraud from 1987 to 1998.

The Wall Street Journal grew in 1889 out of a stock report with what name?

Charles Dow computed his average by adding up prices and dividing by the number of stocks.

What did publisher John Peter Zenger's 1735 trial on Wall Street help establish?

He was acquitted on the grounds that what he printed was true.

Which sculptor's bronze statue of George Washington stands on the steps of Federal Hall?

It was erected in 1883 at the height of the original balcony where Washington took the oath.

Which Tom Wolfe novel of 1987 centres many of its events on Wall Street culture?

The same year the film Wall Street gave the world Gordon Gekko.

How many city blocks does Wall Street run, from Broadway to South Street and the East River?

The whole street is just under 2,000 feet long, yet its name stands in for the entire American financial industry.

Which Herman Melville short story of 1853 is subtitled 'A Story of Wall Street'?

The tale of a copyist who 'would prefer not to' portrays the alienating forces at work in the district's offices.

How many people were killed in the 1920 Wall Street bombing?

A further 143 were seriously injured; the perpetrators were never identified and the blast helped fuel the Red Scare.

Which German bank's US headquarters occupied 60 Wall Street from 2001 to 2021?

The 1988 tower was built as the J.P. Morgan & Co. headquarters; the bank moved to Columbus Circle in 2021 as most big firms drifted to Midtown.

What was 55 Wall Street originally built as in 1836-1841?

It later became the US Custom House and, after a 1907-1910 expansion, the taller National City Bank Building.