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All about Wall Street!

The history of Wall Street goes back to the 17th century, at that time the future town of New York belonged to the Dutch colonial empire of America.The city was then called “New Amsterdam” and the colony was named “New Netherland”. This street thus formed the northern limit of “New Amsterdam” belonging to the Netherlanders.
But then, from where does this famous name come? Well those had built there a wooden wall to protect itself from the Indians and British colonists. The wall always resisted against battles but was demolished by the English in 1699.
However … there is another explanation concerning the name given to this place! Indeed, although the name “Wall street” stands for a wall which was situated in the current place of the street, “De Waal Straat” (Dutch name) does not refer to a wall, but to an important group of colonists who took part in the creation of “New Amsterdam”: French-speaking Walloons. In Dutch, a Walloon means “Waal”. Indeed, in the1630’s, the total population of "New Netherland" was of 300 people, including a large majority of Walloons.

Just after the explosion.
Federal Hall is at the right.

 An attack in Wall Street on September 16th, 1920 caused 38 deaths and 200 wounded.

At noon, a horse-drawn wagon passed on Wall Street and stopped across the street from the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan23 Wall Street, on the Financial District's busiest corner.  

The 38 victims were mostly young people who worked as messengers, stenographers, clerks and brokers. Many of the wounded suffered severe injuries.The bomb caused more than $2 million in property damage and destroyed most of the interior spaces of the Morgan building. The perpetrators were never found.

In 1889, the original New York Stock Exchange newspaper, ‘Customers' Afternoon Letter’, became the ‘Wall Street Journal’, in reference to the name of the current street. This media, published in the city of New York, still exists and has a great influence in the world of the economic daily newspapers. It was for a long time the more read newspaper of the United States of America, although now it is the second national after USA Today. It belongs to Dow Jones and Company.

The band.

On Wednesday, January 26, 2000, under the direction of the director Michael Moore, the rock group ‘Rage against the Machine’ played its title ‘Sleep now in the fire’ in front of the doors of the NYSE of Wall Street in order to turn its video clip. Creating a huge crowd in the street and occurring without authorization, the police interfered in order to put an end to the disorders. Who would have guessed that Wall Street had a rebellious rock'n'roll side!

Wall Street also inspired many directors! Many films are starring this famous street. Among these we can find Wolves of Wall Street. It is a fantastic film which does not concern the financial side. Released in 2002, it was directed by David DeCoteau.  

  

Another well known film about the street may be Wall Street. It was a drama film released on December 1, 1929 and was produced by Harry Cohn, directed by Roy William Neill, and starred Ralph Ince, Aileen Pringle, Sam De Grasse, Philip Strange, and Freddie Burke Frederick.  A widow (Aileen Pringle), believing she can ruin Ince by using his own methods, conspires with her husband's former partner (Sam De Grasse), but a strong friendship between Ince and Pringle's young son (Freddie Burke Frederick) changes things dramatically.

1987.

2010.

Wall Street is a 1987 American drama film released by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Oliver Stone, Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, and Daryl Hannah. The film tells the story of Bud Fox (Sheen), a young stockbroker desperate to succeed who becomes involved with his hero, Gordon Gekko (Douglas), a wealthy, unscrupulous corporate raider. This film had a huge success and even knew a sequel titled Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, also known as Wall Street 2, which was released on September 24, 2010. Stone, Douglas, and Sheen (for a brief cameo) were reunited with Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, and Frank Langella also starring in the film. Set in New York, the film takes place 23 years after the original and revolves around the 2008 financial crisis.