Financial District
Neighborhood Intelligence

The Financial District covers the southern tip of Manhattan, where the Dutch founded New Amsterdam in the 1620s and where the city's government and trade began. Wall Street runs through its center, with the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Federal Hall, the site of George Washington's first inauguration as president. Trinity Church stands at the head of Wall Street, and Fraunces Tavern anchors a small historic block. The official area covered here, NYC Planning's Financial District-Battery Park City, also includes the residential Battery Park City on the Hudson and the South Street Seaport.

Battery Park City was built in the 1970s on landfill that included soil and rock excavated during construction of the original World Trade Center. It is now a planned residential neighborhood with a riverfront esplanade, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the Irish Hunger Memorial. The World Trade Center site holds One World Trade Center and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. In recent decades many older office buildings in the Financial District have been converted to apartments, giving the area a growing residential population alongside its offices.