Wall Street

in New York City, a narrow street leading from Broadway to the East River. It occupies the former site of a stockade wall built across the Island of Manhattan by the burghers of New Amsterdam as a defense against the Indians. The United States subtreasury, the assay office, and a number of banks and trust offices are located on this street. As the banking business, however, has outgrown the narrow accommodations of one short street, the term has been extended to include adjacent territory. In this larger sense, Wall Street is applied to the entire financial district of New York City. It includes seven exchanges, the subtreasury, nearly forty banks, about thirty trust companies, and not less than five hundred rail-road, insurance, express, telegraph, mining, and manufacturing offices that handle funds on a large scale. Wall Street is considered the second financial center of the world, being surpassed in the magnitude of its operations only by those of a corresponding financial district in London about the Bank of England.