Wall Street NYC

Wall Street, New York City

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The view looking up Wall Street around 1903, with Trinity Church in the distance. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The same scene in 2014:

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Perhaps ironically, the only building visible in both photos is also the oldest building that is readily visible in the 1903 photo.  Trinity Church, located on Broadway across from Wall Street, was completed in 1846, and its steeple made it the tallest structure in the city until the completion of the New York World Building in 1890.  Today it is dwarfed by the 20th century skyscrapers of the Financial District, but it remains a fixture in the area.  Today, this area of both Wall Street and Broad Street is closed to vehicular traffic.

There is another building that is (sort of) seen in the 1903 photo and still exists today, although it isn’t visible in the 2014 photo.  The Federal Hall National Memorial, formerly the US Customs House, isn’t really visible, but the statue of George Washington in front of it is barely visible, on the right-hand side of the intersection of Broad & Wall Streets.  The building was built in 1842, on the site of Federal Hall, which was formerly the first capitol building of the United States, and the location of the first inauguration of George Washington.

J.P. Morgan & Co., New York City

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The headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co., at 23 Wall Street, between 1900 and 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The location in 2014:

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Both buildings in the photos were owned by J.P. Morgan & Co., directly across Broad Street from the New York Stock Exchange.  However, in an unusual reversal, the taller building was replaced with a much shorter building, which was completed in 1913, the same year that J.P. Morgan died.  Intentionally built only four stories high in a neighborhood surrounded by much taller buildings, it showed off the fact that the company was able to afford using such a high-value lot for such a short building.  It was the target of the September 16, 1920 Wall Street bombing; much of the interior was destroyed, and the shrapnel damage is still visible on the exterior of the building.

New York Stock Exchange

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The New York Stock Exchange around 1904. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The building in 2014:

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The first photo was taken right around the time that the current New York Stock Exchange building was opened, and in the intervening years the building saw the 1920 Wall Street bombing, the economic boom of the 1920s, the 1929 crash and Great Depression, all the way up to the September 11 attacks and the latest economic recession.  Today, it is still at the heart of the financial district, and it is also a major tourist site, as seen in the 2014 photo.

Wall Street Docks, New York City

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The view of the docks at the foot of Wall Street along South Street in New York City, between 1900 and 1905. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The same view in 2024:

Located on the East River waterfront, across South Street from the foot of Wall Street, the ferry terminal at the left provided passage from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Although the importance of East River ferries decreased once the Brooklyn Bridge and subsequent bridges were completed, ferries still play a role in New York’s transportation, as seen in the 2024 photo, where the site is still being used as a ferry terminal.  The actual boats visible in the first photo are not the ferries; they belonged to the US Army Quartermaster Corps, which no longer has a base in this area.