Editing Wall Street (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Stad Amsterdam in Nieuw Nederland (City Amsterdam in New Netherland) Castello Plan 1660.jpg|thumb|The original city map, called ''the [[Castello Plan]]'', from 1660, showing the wall on the right side]]
[[File:Block-House and City Gate (foot of present Wall Street) 1674 New Amsterdam.jpg|thumb|Block-House and City Gate (foot of present Wall Street) 1674, New Amsterdam]]

In the original records of [[New Amsterdam]], the Dutch always called the street ''Het Cingel'' ("the Belt"), which was also the name of the original outer barrier street, wall, and canal of [[Amsterdam]]. After the English [[conquest of New Netherland]] in 1664, they renamed the settlement "New York" and in tax records from April 1665 (still in Dutch) they refer to the street as ''Het Cingel ofte Stadt Wall'' ("the Belt or the City Wall").<ref name="DORIS2017">{{Cite web |title=The Dutch & the English, Part 2: A Wall by Any Other Name |url=https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/2/23/the-dutch-the-english-part-2-a-wall-by-any-other-name |access-date=January 17, 2023 |website=NYC Department of Records & Information Services |date=February 23, 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117190124/https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/2/23/the-dutch-the-english-part-2-a-wall-by-any-other-name |url-status=live }}</ref> This use of both names for the street also appears as late as 1691 on the Miller Plan of New York.<ref name="JS4oX">{{Cite web |title=The Dutch & the English Part 5: The Return of the Dutch and What Became of the Wall |url=https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/6/1/the-dutch-the-english-part-5-return-of-the-dutch-what-became-of-the-wall |access-date=January 17, 2023 |website=NYC Department of Records & Information Services |date=June 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117190134/https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/6/1/the-dutch-the-english-part-5-return-of-the-dutch-what-became-of-the-wall |url-status=live }}</ref> New York Governor [[Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick|Thomas Dongan]] may have issued the first official designation of Wall Street in 1686, the same year he issued a new charter for New York. Confusion over the origins of the name Wall Street appeared in modern times because in the 19th and early 20th century some historians mistakenly thought the Dutch had called it "de Waal Straat", which to Dutch ears sounds like [[Walloons|Walloon]] Street. However, in 17th century New Amsterdam, de Waal Straat (Wharf or Dock Street) was a section of what is today's [[Pearl Street (Manhattan)|Pearl Street]].<ref name="DORIS2017" />

[[File:Wall Street IRT 008c.JPG|thumb|New Amsterdam's wall depicted on tiles in the [[Wall Street Subway Station (IRT)|Wall Street subway station]]]]
The original wall was constructed under orders from Director General of the [[Dutch West India Company]], [[Peter Stuyvesant]], at the start of the first [[First Anglo-Dutch War|Anglo-Dutch war]] soon after New Amsterdam was incorporated in 1653.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dutch & the English, Part 1: Good Fences, a History of Wall Street |url=https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/2/9/the-dutch-the-english-part-1-good-fences-a-history-of-wall-street |access-date=January 17, 2023 |website=NYC Department of Records & Information Services |date=February 9, 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117190133/https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/2/9/the-dutch-the-english-part-1-good-fences-a-history-of-wall-street |url-status=live }}</ref> Fearing an over land invasion of English troops from the colonies in [[New England]] (at the time [[Manhattan]] was easily accessible by land because the [[Harlem Ship Canal]] had not been dug), he ordered a ditch and wooden [[palisade]] to be constructed on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Emery |first=David |date=January 15, 2019 |title=Was Wall Street Originally the Site of a 'Border Wall' Meant to Protect New Amsterdam? |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wall-street-border-wall/ |access-date=January 23, 2023 |website=Snopes |language=en |archive-date=January 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123151816/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wall-street-border-wall/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The wall was built of dirt and {{convert|15|ft|adj=on}} wooden planks, measuring {{convert|2,340|ft}} long and {{convert|9|ft}} tall<ref name="History.com Wall Street Timeline">{{Cite web|title=Wall Street Timeline: From a Wooden Wall to a Symbol of Economic Power|url=https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/wall-street-timeline|access-date=September 6, 2020|website=HISTORY|date=January 3, 2019|language=en|archive-date=January 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105105733/https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/wall-street-timeline|url-status=live}}</ref> and was built using the labor of both [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|Enslaved Africans]] and white colonists.<ref>[http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/PDFs/White_New_Yorkers.pdf White New Yorkers in Slave Times] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601234634/http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/PDFs/White_New_Yorkers.pdf |date=June 1, 2010 }} [[New-York Historical Society]]. Retrieved August 20, 2006. (PDF)</ref><ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/crash/ Timeline: A selected Wall Street chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327142743/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/crash/ |date=March 27, 2017 }} PBS Online. Retrieved August 8, 2011.</ref> In fact Stuyvesant had ordered that "the citizens, without exception, shall work on the constructions… by immediately digging a ditch from the East River to the North River, 4 to 5 feet deep and 11 to 12 feet wide..." And that "the soldiers and other servants of the Company, together with the free Negroes, no one excepted, shall complete the work on the fort by constructing a breastwork, and the farmers are to be summoned to haul the sod."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gehring |first=Charles |title=New York historical Manuscripts: Dutch. Volume V: Council minutes 1652-1654 |publisher=Genealogical Publ. |year=1983 |location=Baltimore |pages=69 |language=English}}</ref>

The first Anglo-Dutch War ended in 1654 without hostilities in New Amsterdam, but over time the "werken" (meaning the works or city fortifications) were reinforced and expanded to protect against potential incursions from [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], pirates, and the English.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harari |first=Yuval Noah |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/910498369 |title=Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind |publisher=Penguin Random House UK |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-09-959008-8 |location=London |pages=360–361 |translator-last=Harari |translator-first=Yuval Noah |oclc=910498369 |author-link=Yuval Noah Harari |translator-last2=Purcell |translator-first2=John |translator-last3=Watzman |translator-first3=Haim |translator-link=Yuval Noah Harari |translator-link3=Haim Watzman}}</ref> The English also expanded and improved the wall after their 1664 takeover (a cause of the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]]), as did the Dutch from 1673 to 1674 when they briefly [[Reconquest of New Netherland|retook]] the city during the [[Third Anglo-Dutch War]], and by the late 1600s the wall encircled most of the city and had two large stone bastions on the northern side.<ref name="JS4oX" /> The Dutch named these bastions "Hollandia" and "Zeelandia" after the ships that carried their invasion force. The wall started at [[Hanover Square (Manhattan)|Hanover Square]] on Pearl Street, which was the shoreline at that time, crossed the Indian path that the Dutch called ''Heeren Wegh'', now called [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]], and ended at the other shoreline (today's Trinity Place), where it took a turn south and ran along the shore until it ended at the [[Fort Amsterdam|old fort]]. There was a gate at Broadway (the "Land Gate") and another at Pearl Street, the "Water Gate".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dutch & the English, Part 3: Construction of the Wall (1653-1663) |url=https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/3/9/the-dutch-the-english-part-3-construction-of-the-wall-1653-1663 |access-date=January 19, 2023 |website=NYC Department of Records & Information Services |date=March 9, 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119200633/https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/3/9/the-dutch-the-english-part-3-construction-of-the-wall-1653-1663 |url-status=live }}</ref> The wall and its fortifications were eventually removed in 1699—it had outlived its usefulness because the city had grown well beyond the wall. A new City Hall was built at Wall and [[Nassau Street (Manhattan)|Nassau]] in 1700 using the stones from the bastions as materials for the foundation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dutch & the English Part 5: The Return of the Dutch and What Became of the Wall |url=https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/6/1/the-dutch-the-english-part-5-return-of-the-dutch-what-became-of-the-wall |access-date=January 19, 2023 |website=NYC Department of Records & Information Services |date=June 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117190134/https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/6/1/the-dutch-the-english-part-5-return-of-the-dutch-what-became-of-the-wall |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:New York slave market about 1730.jpg|thumb|New York's Municipal [[Slave markets and slave jails in the United States|slave market]], located at the foot of Wall Street on the East River, {{circa|1730}}]]

[[History of slavery in New York (state)|Slavery had been introduced]] to Manhattan in 1626, but it was not until December 13, 1711, that the New York City Common Council made a market at the foot of Wall Street the city's first official [[Slave markets and slave jails in the United States|slave market]] for the sale and rental of enslaved Africans and Indians.<ref>[http://maap.columbia.edu/place/22.html Slave Market] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306133627/http://maap.columbia.edu/place/22.html |date=March 6, 2013 }}. Mapping the African American Past, [[Columbia University]].</ref><ref>Peter Alan Harper (February 5, 2013). [https://www.theroot.com/how-slave-labor-made-new-york-1790895122 How Slave Labor Made New York] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131155200/https://www.theroot.com/how-slave-labor-made-new-york-1790895122 |date=January 31, 2021 }}. ''[[The Root (magazine)|The Root]].'' Retrieved April 21, 2014.</ref> The market operated from 1711 to 1762 at the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets, and consisted of a wooden structure with a roof and open sides, although walls may have been added over the years; it could hold approximately 50 people. New York's municipal authorities directly benefited from the sale of slaves by implementing taxes on every person who was bought and sold there.<ref>WNYC (April 14, 2015). [http://www.wnyc.org/story/nyc-acknowledge-its-slave-market-more-50-years/ City to Acknowledge it Operated a Slave Market for More Than 50 Years] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128195859/https://www.wnyc.org/story/nyc-acknowledge-its-slave-market-more-50-years/ |date=November 28, 2020 }}. ''[[WNYC]].'' Retrieved April 15, 2015.</ref>

In these early days, local merchants and traders would gather at disparate spots to buy and sell shares and bonds, and over time divided themselves into two classes—auctioneers and dealers.<ref name="Geisst1997" /> In the late 18th century, there was a [[American sycamore|buttonwood]] tree at the foot of Wall Street under which traders and speculators would gather to trade securities. The benefit was being in proximity to each other.<ref name="usatoday20011024" /><ref name="History.com Wall Street Timeline" /> In 1792, traders formalized their association with the [[Buttonwood Agreement]] which was the origin of the [[New York Stock Exchange]].<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan04.html Today in History: January 4&nbsp;– The New York Stock Exchange] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822201009/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan04.html |date=August 22, 2006 }} The Library of Congress. Retrieved August 8, 2011.</ref> The idea of the agreement was to make the market more "structured" and "without the manipulative auctions", with a commission structure.<ref name="Geisst1997" /> Persons signing the agreement agreed to charge each other a standard commission rate; persons not signing could still participate but would be charged a higher commission for dealing.<ref name="Geisst1997" />
[[File:New York City Hall 1789b.jpg|thumb|An engraving from 1855, showing a conjectural view of Wall Street, including the original Federal Hall, as it probably looked at the time of [[George Washington]]'s inauguration, 1789]]
In 1789, Wall Street was the scene of the United States' first presidential inauguration when [[George Washington]] took the oath of office on the balcony of [[Federal Hall]] on April 30, 1789. This was also the location of the passing of the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]]. [[Alexander Hamilton]], who was the first Treasury secretary and "architect of the early United States financial system", is buried in the cemetery of [[Trinity Church (Manhattan)|Trinity Church]], as is [[Robert Fulton]], famed for his [[steamboat]]s.<ref name="nyt20071014">{{cite news |author-link=Daniel Gross (journalist) |first=Daniel |last=Gross |title=The Capital of Capital No More? |work=The New York Times: Magazine |date=October 14, 2007 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/magazine/14wallstreet-t.html |access-date=January 15, 2011 |archive-date=November 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109025255/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/magazine/14wallstreet-t.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1863/12/23/news/a-monument-to-robert-fulton.html "A Monument to Robert Fulton"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230318095609/https://www.nytimes.com/1863/12/23/archives/a-monument-to-robert-fulton.html |date=March 18, 2023 }} ''New York Times'', December 12, 1863</ref>