Wall Street has come a long way since the 1600s

The history of Wall Street as a financial center dates back to the 1700s, beginning with the establishment of the New York Stock Exchange and New York City's first official slave market.

A timeline of Wall Street's history

Wall Street's historical timeline starts with Wall Street getting its name in the 1600s and ends with details about the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011.

See how New York City has grown since 1609

Wall Street and the southern tip of Manhattan were the first parts of the island to be developed beyond farmland by Dutch and English settlers. It wasn’t long until New York City resembled the city we know today.

Mapping early New York

Want to see how Wall Street (and New York City as a whole) has changed over time? Use this timeline and map to see Manhattan today overlaid with the precise boundaries of early land grants to the Dutch in the 1600s. Scroll through the progress of city building through the first century of European settlement there.

As technology evolved, so did Wall Street

Before the telephone was invented in the mid 1800s, people had to trade stocks in person. But once office telephones and computers became commonplace, banks and other financial institutions didn't necessarily need to have their headquarters near exchanges like Wall Street's New York Stock Exchange.

A history of stock exchanges, from Venitain merchants to modern day

While the idea of stock exchanges—markets where securities can be bought and sold—is mostly synonymous with Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, and other modern markets, places to buy and sell financial instruments have a long history....

In 1711, the New York City Common Council decided that the city’s slave market would operate on Wall Street

In 1711, the New York City Common Council decided that the city’s slave market would operate on Wall Street. Back then, the nation’s economy rode on the backs of slave labor and the slave trade itself—meaning that the slave market’s location was an economic hub for the city.

The Wall Street Journal: a timeline

The Wall Street Journal got its start as a financial news bulletin for people trading stocks. Since then, it has evolved beyond just financial news. It now ranks among the preeminent global business news sources.

The Erie Canal transformed New York City into America’s banking capital

By redirecting western trade through New York Harbor, the canal turned New York into the nation’s commercial hub. This surge in commerce shifted financial power from Philadelphia to Wall Street, establishing the city as America’s banking capital.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City’s Financial District in 2001, many banks decided to relocate

Much has been said about why today’s top banks are typically no longer headquartered on Wall Street itself. The terrorist attacks in New York City’s Financial District on Sept. 11, 2001, are one reason many banks decided to relocate.

The best movies about Wall Street

From Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” to “American Psycho” starring Christian Bale, Hollywood has no shortage of Wall-Street-centric filmography. These films often distinguish themselves by interrogating why excess wealth and success are so often deemed synonymous in American culture.

The origin and history of stock exchanges

When were stocks first sold? Though debt was first sold in Venice in the 14th century, stocks proper began in the Netherlands. To fund its spice trade across the world in 1602, the Dutch East India Company sold stocks to individual investors, a novel approach to raising funds. It was the Dutch West India Company that founded New York—the site of some of the world’s greatest stock exchanges. Listen to a concise historical overview here.

When the New York Stock Exchange was started in 1792, traders would meet both outside on the street and in coffee shops to do business.

A stock market timeline

The stock market has come a long way since the 1600s, when the first version of a stock exchange was created in Amsterdam. Mile markers along the way include everything from the Dow Jones Industrial Average's creation in 1896 to the stock market woes during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The evolution of New York City

Originally founded as New Amsterdam, this interactive timeline lists out and provides deep dives on the major events that shaped New York City as it became America's foremost cultural and economic hub.

Take a video tour of Wall Street's historic architecture, guided by a professional architect.

New York was once called New Amsterdam

Although New York has a long history, it wasn’t actually called “New York” until the late 1600s, when the English beat out the Dutch for control of the area. In 1664, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered what used to be known as “New Amsterdam” to the English, who renamed it New York after the Duke of York.

The architectural evolution of New York City's Chinatown

Cityscapes continuously evolve, and each stage in their transformation tells a unique story. In Manhattan's Chinatown from the 1940s to today, the architecture has bloomed from an ethnic conclave for often mistreated migrants to a vibrant cultural hub today. See varying elevations and facades over time.

What is Silicon Alley?

The term "Silicon Alley" refers to an area in New York City once known for its high-tech startups, especially during the dot-com boom. Silicon Alley ran from New York City's Flatiron District through Soho to the Financial District. After the dot-com bubble burst, tech companies spread out through the rest of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Learn more about the area and how it compared to Silicon Valley in this article.

Listen to this podcast episode detailing the origin story of Wall Street's famous bronze Charging Bull statue.

The story of the Wall Street Crash of 1929

The 1920s in the US "roared" with rapid economic growth after the conclusion of World War I. But in October 1929, the bubbly stock markets crashed dramatically, plunging the nation into the decadelong Great Depression.

The first US stock exchange dates back to the 1790s in Philadelphia

Only two years after that stock exchange in Philadelphia started, the largest stock exchange in the US to date was created: the New York Stock Exchange.

The Times Square New Year's celebration originated as a party for The New York Times

The paper moved to the area, originally called Longacre Square, in 1904 and lobbied the city to rename it after the publication. The paper’s publisher, Alfred Ochs, threw a massive all-day party on New Year’s Eve to celebrate the opening of the paper’s headquarters, establishing the location as a destination for the holiday.

An overview of New York's iconic stoops

In New York City, stoops are cherished and fundamental aspect of life in many neighborhoods. In a city where yards are a rarity, stairways are places for New Yorkers to socialize and relax. Follow the history of these sites in this video, starting from their Dutch origins to their impact on city life today.

Why Amsterdam looks so unique

The Netherlands' capital consists of concentric canals lined with towering, unusually thin row homes, an altogether unique profile in Europe and the world. When it was growing, the city was a key trade hub, and merchants wanted direct access to waterways. Canals were built like roads, and houses were required to be very thin to allow for more homes to line the canals.

The New York Stock Exchange wouldn't have been made if not for municipal bond sales

The Funding Act of 1790 nationalized and consolidated the debt held by the 13 colonies to be sold off in the form of bonds.

The world's oldest stock exchange was called the Amsterdam Stock Exchange

What is now referred to as Euronext Amsterdam got its start centuries ago, in the early 1600s. Back then, it was called the Amsterdam Stock Exchange—and it might not have existed without the Dutch East India Co.'s desire to raise funding for its seafaring ventures.

The origins of modern family offices date back to the 1500s

Wealth management for families with massive fortunes has evolved over the centuries, with the Rockefellers establishing the first single-family office in 1882.

Madison Square Garden and Madison Avenue are indirectly named after James Madison

Madison Square Park was named for James Madison in the 1800s. Madison Avenue later took its name from the park, and Madison Square Garden was named after Madison Square, indirectly linking both landmarks to Madison.

'Black Wall Street' refers to a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Black-owned businesses once thrived.

The bond market dates back to the 1100s in Venice

In the early 1800s, bonds were used to fund US railroads and canals in Great Britain. “Liberty Bonds” were sold during both World Wars in the 20th century. Learning about the early and modern history of bonds can offer a glimpse into how the modern bond market came to be.

The Dow Jones & Company began as a small news service in 1882

Founded in 1882 by Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, Dow Jones & Company started with hand-delivered market bulletins. Today it’s a global financial news giant, best known for publishing The Wall Street Journal.

Broadway's nickname is 'the Great White Way'

Thanks to the advent of electricity, by the middle of the 19th century, theaters in the Broadway area were illuminated by lampposts and marquees. The nickname “the Great White Way” describes how it looked at night. The term is still used today.

The Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets is a place to discuss high-risk trading strategies

r/WallStreetBets is a forum (aka a “subreddit”) on the social media platform Reddit that was started in 2012. Later, r/WallStreetBets evolved into a place where unconventional investment approaches were not just tolerated, but planned and celebrated. It’s perhaps most famous for its role in the GameStop saga.

The NYSE is one of the few remaining stock exchanges where much active trading still happens in person on the trading floor.

Hamilton founded what many regard as the first commercial bank in the United States

In 1784, Alexander Hamilton helped found the Bank of New York, which initially operated without a charter, financed early federal operations, provided what is considered the US government's first loan, and became the first stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Explore how 10,000 different American cities got their name.

Largely considered to be the inspiration for Gordon Gekko in the movie 'Wall Street,' Ivan Boesky was one of the most high-profile white-collar criminals and faced a $100M fine for insider trading in 1986.

Peter Tuchman, who has worked on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange for over four decades and ranks among the most famous traders in history, is known as the 'Einstein of Wall Street.'

Broadway is the epicenter of the American theater world

Broadway is shorthand for the Broadway theater district, an area in New York City's Manhattan borough that occupies a segment of Broadway, a 13-mile road. Although the Broadway theater district has a relatively small geographic footprint, its 41 theaters stage some of the world's most popular productions of plays and musicals.

See the small apartment WeWork founder Adam Neumann lived in before he was a billionaire

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann used to share a relatively small apartment in New York City with his wife before he became a billionaire off of WeWork. At one point, the apartment rented for $3K per month.

Washington DC's streetcar network built the modern American suburb

Washington's first electric streetcar line launched in 1888, and real estate developers quickly built lines to open new neighborhoods. A 35-minute ride from Chevy Chase, Maryland, to downtown Washington transformed farmland into a suburb.

New York City's carriage horses are a holdover from a time when the city was home to hundreds of thousands of horses roaming its streets.

The Rockefellers' family office expanded to become a multifamily office

The Rockefellers created the first known single-family office in the late 1800s but the firm has evolved since to serve many wealthy American families.

A hedge funds timeline, from the 1940s onward

Since Alfred Winslow Jones formed the first hedge fund in 1949, traders have rolled out an increasingly complex array of investment strategies. They all aim to beat increasingly efficient markets and/or to provide ample downside protection against sell-offs.

'The stock market' can be loosely defined as a set of exchanges and other places where shares of public companies are bought and sold.

The Occupy Wall Street protests lasted 59 days

After the 2008 recession, one of the main slogans of Occupy Wall Street was, “We are the 99%,” alluding to the wealth disparity between America’s wealthiest 1% of all households and the rest of the country.

Retail investing by the numbers

When average Americans began pouring into the stock market, Wall Street wasn’t sure if its new guests were there to stay. But at the end of 2023, Public confidently declared that retail investors “weren’t going anywhere” after 30 million new individuals began buying and selling stock. Download the report to learn more here.

The Bomb-proof, Cold War-era New York data center inspiring spy movies

At 33 Thomas Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, a 45-story concrete tower with no windows stands imperiously over the city. Inside, 18 floors of telecommunications technology have hummed for decades. The building's purpose—to protect US comms from nuclear fallout—and its design have played into spy movie plotlines. Dive into the building's curious role in pop culture with this long read.

How JPMorgan Chase became America's biggest bank

From the railroad and steel consolidations brokered by John Pierpont Morgan on Wall Street more than a century ago, to the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the financial crisis, and Jamie Dimon’s leadership, J.P. Morgan Chase has been at the center of finance for more than a century.