Hello, everyone. It's Melissa. Today was Bring-Your-Child-to-Work day. So instead of going to school, I went with my mom to her workplace—a big bank on Wall Street in New York City. It was really fun but pretty tiring too!
My mom told me some cool things about Wall Street today, but I had already learned some facts from Mr. Fay's landmarks lesson. Mr. Fay told us that the area called Wall Street is located at the southern end of Manhattan. It's also one of the world’s busiest financial centers. In fact, millions of dollars are traded there every single day!
Wall Street has been around for hundreds of years. In 1653 the lower end of Manhattan Island was a Dutch settlement called New Amsterdam. But British colonists wanted the land too, so the Dutch built a wooden wall to protect themselves from possible attack. Near the wall was a path, which eventually became known as "Wall Street."
We asked Mr. Fay how this narrow path grew into such a mighty symbol of financial power. He said that in the late 1700s, New York City was a main center of trading and commerce. Back then a small group of traders used to meet under a buttonwood tree at 68 Wall Street to trade stocks, or shares, of companies they owned.
In 1792, 24 of these traders signed the Buttonwood Agreement, promising to trade stocks only with each other. They also set some basic rules for how trading should be done. In 1817 this group officially became the New York Stock and Exchange Board. Today it's known as the New York Stock Exchange.
After the establishment of the New York Stock Exchange, more banks and financial institutions moved to the area. Eventually "Wall Street" came to mean not just the street but also the entire financial district in lower Manhattan.
If you've ever been to Wall Street and the rest of the financial district, you know it's a busy place, with businesspeople darting in and out of subway stations and tall, shiny office buildings. As my mom and I walked around, she had to warn me several times to watch where I was going!
Wall Street has lots of tall modern buildings, but there are also some older historic ones. First built in 1698, Trinity Church was one of the first church congregations established in America. Back when Manhattan was the nation's first capital, a building called Federal Hall housed the government offices. Federal Hall was where America's first president—George Washington—was sworn into office.
I bet you've seen photos of a popular tourist attraction on Wall Street—the famous charging bull. Apparently an artist created this huge bronze statue in 1989 and installed it one winter night in front of the New York Stock Exchange. There was an economic recession going on at the time, and the artist wanted to cheer up discouraged New Yorkers. So he sculpted "Charging Bull" as a special holiday gift.
My mom took my picture in front of the bull, and I rubbed its nose for good luck because it's supposed to represent financial prosperity. (Hey! Do you think my parents will finally raise my allowance now?)
Throughout its history, Wall Street has been associated with America's wealth and prosperity. But Mr. Fay reminded us that Wall Street has also been associated with periods of economic decline. When the American stock market crashed in 1929, it triggered the Great Depression. Millions of people lost their jobs, and devastating poverty spread around the world.
Another U.S. stock market crash came in 2008. A recession swept the globe, and many people blamed Wall Street for starting it by using risky lending practices to make lots of money. By 2011 the "Occupy" movement had sprung up, with people around the world occupying city parks to protest greed in the financial industry.
As a symbol of wealth and prosperity, Wall Street has also been the target of violence. In 1920 a bomb exploded on a street corner, killing 38 people. In 1993 terrorists detonated a bomb in the World Trade Center’s underground parking lot. Then, on September 11, 2001, terrorists flew two planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The towers were destroyed, and thousands of people were murdered.
Today at the World Trade Center site, there's a memorial, a museum, and a new tower where the two once stood. The new tower, known as One World Trade Center, is one of the tallest buildings in the world. At the memorial Mom and I walked around two square pools, reading the names of the victims written in stone.
Today the New York Stock Exchange is one of the most famous places on Wall Street. In fact, it's the biggest stock exchange in the world. My mom took me there, and the building's entrance is as grand as Mr. Fay said it was. Six tall white columns support a giant marble sculpture over the doorway.
We took a tour of the building and looked down on the trading floor. I've seen it before on TV, but it was pretty cool to see the real thing. The floor was buzzing with activity as traders ran around, shouting and making deals.
I found out that each morning and afternoon, a bell is rung at the Stock Exchange to start and end the trading day. Celebrities are often invited to ring the bell, so it's been clanged by astronauts, storm troopers from Star Wars, rock stars, even a duck from a TV commercial!
After our tour of the Stock Exchange, Mom and I left Wall Street and took the subway uptown. We met my dad for dinner at a fancy restaurant. That was really fun too.
Well, I'd better get some rest now because tomorrow I'm not going back to Wall Street with my mom. I'm headed back to school—to take a big math test.
Good night, Little Fox readers!