Wall Street

Wall Street, the financial centre of the USA and home of the New York stock exchange, USA, with the East River in the background. Wall Street is so-named because it follows the route of a wooden wall built by the Dutch to keep American Indians and British trade rivals away from their land.

The financial centre of the USA, a street on lower Manhattan Island, New York City, on which the New York Stock Exchange is situated; also a synonym for stock dealing in the USA. Office skyscrapers house many of the major banks, trust companies, insurance corporations, and financial institutions of the city; coffee, cotton, metal, produce, and corn exchanges are sited here. Its narrow course follows the line of a stockade wall erected by the Dutch to protect New Amsterdam in 1653.