Wall Street Walks Tour Stop at the New York Stock Exchange

This video shows Wall Street Walks tour guide Annaline Dinkelmann speaking to her walking tour group outside the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New York City. On a typical summer day, Wall Street is packed with tourists, bankers, NYSE employees and security. At the end of the video you can see Federal Hall, which is the building with the tall steps leading up to it. This building is on the site of what once was the U.S. Capitol building, as well as the site of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States. The Wall Street area is steeped in American history, and tour guide Annaline is an expert in the ins and outs of the Financial District of NYC.

To find out more, please visit the Wall Street Walks website and book a ticket for a guided tour. You can also find Wall Street Walks on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Wall Street Walks Stops at Ground Zero and One World Trade Center

The Freedom Tower on the left rises majestically above the skyline.

One of the west side stops on all Wall Street Walks guided walking tours of downtown Manhattan is Ground Zero. The vantage point shown in these photos is just about the best view of the construction that is happening at Ground Zero: across the avenue, on the patio just above the Cortlandt Street R train stop. The huge building that is being constructed to replace the Twin Towers is commonly referred to as the Freedom Tower, but is currently called One World Trade Center, or "1 WTC."

Wall Street Walks tour stop at Ground Zero.

The Freedom Tower will rise 1776 feet above the ground when finished. Construction is currently about one third complete, with a projected completion date of 2014. Above you can see Annaline, the tour guide in the light blue shirt, talking to her tour group about the history and the future of the World Trade Center site.

Construction of One World Trade Center as of June 2011.

If you'd like to enhance your own visit to New York City with the help and expertise of a local, book tickets for a Wall Street Walks guided walking tour by clicking here. With a focus on the history of downtown NYC and the Financial District, Wall Street Walks tours offer insight into what makes New York City tick.

Wall Street Walks Tour: Atop the Steps of Federal Hall

One of the stops on each Wall Street Walks guided walking tour is 26 Wall Street, now known as Federal Hall. This location has been an important site in the history of the United States from the very beginning, and in later blog posts we will discuss all that has transpired here. The U.S. Capitol building once stood on this site, back when New York City was the capitol of the United States. That building was later demolished and the New York Customs House was built on the site.
Here, tour guide Annaline Dinkelmann speaks to her tour group on the very same spot that many newscasters use when reporting on the goings-on of Wall Street. The elevation of the steps, and the NYSE in the background, make for a perfect spot to discuss the intricacies of Wall Street.
To learn more about the history of Wall Street, click through and buy a ticket to a Wall Street Walks guided tour.

The Wall Street Bull: a stop on the Wall Street Walks Tour

The Wall Street Bull is an iconic sculpture located in a median in the middle of Broadway in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, very close to Wall Street. In the 1980s, when he created the Bull sculpture, the artist deposited it in front of the New York Stock Exchange in the middle of the night. The following day was probably the only day in history a bull was not welcome on Wall Street, and the sculpture was removed. However, the public demanded that the Bull sculpture be returned to Lower Manhattan, and shortly thereafter we experienced the very strong bull market from the 1990s. The sculpture was placed temporarily in a median in the middle of Broadway and was never moved. As you can see from the video, the Wall Street Bull is a popular tourist attraction. To learn more about the Wall Street Bull and all the other intricacies of the history of the Financial District, click through to reserve tickets for a Wall Street Walks tour.

Hetty Green: The Witch of Wall Street

Although many of the anecdotes about Hetty Green's stinginess have been exaggerated or altered, the Guiness Book of World Records does list her as "the World's Greatest Miser."

By most accounts, she spent as little as possible on food, clothing, health care and other expenditures. On the other hand, she parlayed an inheritance into an astounding fortune by investing with gusto. Her main investment vehicles were bonds, real estate, railroads and lending. Incredibly, she kept New York City afloat on more than one occasion, most notably by lending the city $1.1 million in 1907.

Hetty Green spent most of her time in the offices of a Wall Street bank,  too frugal to pay for her own office. Her rather dreary fashion sense (always in black, sometimes with a black veil) and her acerbic demeanor led her contemporaries to give her the nickname "The Witch of Wall Street."

Walk in the footsteps of one of the wealthiest and most eccentric women to set foot on Wall Street! A perfect gift for your mother on Mother's Day, the schedule of Wall Street Walks' "Women of Wall Street" guided walking tours can be found here. Victoria Hoodhull, Hetty Green and Muriel Siebert are just a few of the many powerful women that are covered in depth on this walking tour.

There are tours starting at 1pm on both May 7th and 8th. Tickets can be purchased here.

Muriel Siebert: The First Woman of Finance

Muriel Siebert is the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. After encountering significant ridicule and sexism in the financial industry, she was finally elected to membership on the NYSE in 1967, paying $445,000 for her seat. Earlier that year, Siebert founded her own firm, giving her another first: the first woman to own an NYSE member firm.

As an advocate of women's rights and a proponent of women in industry, Muriel Siebert continues to pave the way for progressive thinkers. You can learn more about the legendary women of Wall Street on the guided walking tours provided by Wall Street Walks.

A perfect gift for your mother on Mother's Day, the schedule of Wall Street Walks' "Women of Wall Street" guided walking tours can be found here. Victoria Hoodhull, Hetty Green and Muriel Siebert are just a few of the many powerful women that are covered in depth on this walking tour.

There are tours starting at 1pm on both May 7th and 8th. Tickets can be purchased here.

Victoria Hoodhull: Powerful Woman, Maverick, Bundle of Contradictions

Victoria Hoodhull was a woman far ahead of her time. Born in 1838 in Ohio, she went on to open the first female-owned stock brokerage in 1870. She ran for President of the United States in 1872. Her peculiarities and eccentricities led to public slander and personal attacks which eventually landed her in jail on more than a few occasions. Hers is a rags-to-riches story punctuated at the end by the loss of everything that she had worked so hard to build.

As fascinating as it is complex, the life of Victoria Hoodhull can be explored in a more intimate fashion by walking the streets of New York's Financial District, where Hoodhull built her fortune.


A perfect gift for your mother on Mother's Day, the schedule of Wall Street Walks "Women of Wall Street" guided walking tours can be found here. Victoria Hoodhull, Hetty Green and Muriel Siebert are just a few of the many powerful women that are covered in depth on this walking tour.

There are tours starting at 1pm on both May 7th and 8th. Tickets can be purchased here.