A Brief History of Wall Street

Today it is one of the leading financial centers of the world and millions of dollars are traded there every single day.

Wall Street has seen many ups and downs through its long existence and its history is incredibly interesting to anyone who is interested in the topic of finances. So here is a brief history of Wall Street with some useful websites that will help you to learn more about this fantastic centre of finance.

Early Beginnings

As mentioned Wall Street was first developed in the 17th century as it was a boundary of a settlement known as New Amsterdam. It was actually a wall that was built to protect the area from English colonial settlers. Within a few short years the planks and picket fences that had formed a wall had been replaced by a wall that was 12 feet tall and designed to keep out the Native American tribes.

By the 18th-century a buttonwood tree stood at the bottom of Wall Street and this was an area that traders would trade with each other on an informal basis. By 1792 traders that gathered here had decided to make a more formal association which was under what was called the Buttonwood Agreement. It was this agreement that formed the origins of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1789 George Washington was inaugurated as president on a balcony that overlooked Wall Street.

By 1889 the Customers’ Afternoon Letter which was a stock report changed its name to the Wall Street Journal and this is still in circulation today. It provides information on the stocks and shares that were trading on Wall Street as well as other financial information. Up until this time Wall Street was an area of high affluence and many successful financial trades took place continually, but this was not to be the case forever.

1900 Onwards

From 1900 onwards Wall Street was by far one of the largest districts in the United States that catered for stocks, shares and business. It has a distinct skyline thanks to the numerous buildings that sprung up in the area and there were hundreds of skyscrapers constructed in a very short space of time.

The first major incident to occur on Wall Street was on September 16, 1920 when a bomb was detonated in front of the House of Morgan, which was addressed synonymous with American finance. 300 people were injured in the blast and a further 38 died. By 1940 after many years of investigation and research at the FBI declared the file on this bombing in active and the culprits were never found, despite a warning note being found in a mailbox on the corner of Broadway and Cedar Street.

This however was the first of many incidents that were to change people's perception of Wall Street and the fortunes of those that worked and traded there.

Two Crashes

Wall Street has so far seen two devastating crashes where the stock market slumped and the economy went into dramatic decline. Obviously these kinds of stock market crashes have an immediate and massive impact on the people of not only America but the rest of the world.

The first of stock market crash occurred in 1929 and was called the Wall Street Crash or the Great Crash. It was the worst crash that ever occurred in the American stock market and signaled the start of an economic slump that was to last 12 years and affect many of the industrialized countries in the West. This crash started what was known as the Great Depression where many Americans were plunged into financial crisis and will always be remembered in the history of Wall Street.

The next crash that occurred happened in 1987 and will also go down in history. Wall Street suffered on 19 October when worldwide stock market crashed simultaneously, losing millions in an incredibly short space of time. Hong Kong was the first area to suffer a crash and is spread through Europe and finally the United States. The decline in the stock market was the largest in history. Wall Street crash experts blame program trading, which is conducted by computers for this crash and many believe that Black Monday, as this crash was known as was inevitable.

So far there has not been another crash like it however that is not to say that this will never happen. Wall Street was and still remains a centre of the financial world and as long as stocks and shares are being traded it will still exist.

Online Resources

For more information on the history of Wall Street and more about the crashes they suffered you should go online. There are many websites that are dedicated to this topic which provide a greater insight into how stocks and shares are traded and how these crashes occurred. Here are a few websites that will give you plenty of information on the history of Wall Street and much more.

Hermes Press

At http://www.hermes-press.com/wshist1.htm is an easy to understand rundown on the history of Wall Street. The information provided goes back to the 17th century and goes up to the present day.

A to Z Investments

The website located at http://www.atozinvestments.com/stockmarkethistory.html is a website that is packed with information on the stock market as well as Wall Street. There are in-depth articles on the 1929 crash, and the 1987 crash, as well as advice on how to understand indexes and investing. This is a real must anyone who wants to understand the whole concept of the stock market as well as learn more about Wall Street.

Investopedia®

Visiting the information at http://www.investopedia.com/university/credit-crisis/credit-crisis1.asp provides a good overview of the history of Wall Street as well as delving deeper into the financial crisis that can occur on a stock market.