There's Broadway, Bowery, Bleecker, etc. but we wanted to cover one of the most historic streets in the financial district known as Broad street.  Sure, it may be full of suits and tourists during the weekdays, but its a great (and very quiet) area to roam around at night or on a weekend.

Broad street is located at the southern end Manhattan.  It runs from Wall Street on the North to South Street on the South.  Up until in 1676, Broad street was actually a canal connected to the East River known as the Broad Canal.  It was a small inlet used by fruit and vegetable traders to sell their wares, in what was then New Amsterdam. It was paved over after most boats became too large to use it. The street still bears the name of the original canal.

Illustration of the Broad Canal in 1659 (East River)

In 1909, the Beaux-Arts structure known as the Battery Maritime Building (BMB ) was built as a terminal for the Brooklyn ferry.  It is the last surviving East River ferry building from an era when 17 ferry lines traveled between Manhattan and Brooklyn.  This service ended in 1938 and the building has been used for various purposes since.  In 2008, plans were approved to build a four-story glass addition that include public indoor space, a rooftop bar and restaurant, and a 140-room boutique hotel.

The BMB (right of the Staten Island Ferry terminal) back in 1936 and today 2011.
What a drastic change in the skyline over those 99 years!

The BMB today and a concept rendering of its future.

On the corner of Broad and Pearl streets sits Fraunces Tavern. It is currently a museum, tavern, and restaurant is the oldest building in Manhattan originally built in 1719.  This tavern was an underground meeting place of the Sons of Liberty. This was also where George Washington gave his farewell speech before resigning as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1783.  Little did he know, he would return to New York six years later and become the first president of the United States.

Fraunces Tavern over the years - The oldest building in Manhattan

There was a deadly bombing at Fraunces Tavern on January 25, 1975.  The bomb was set off in the doorway of 101 Broad street and tore into the Tavern injuring many of the people in the dining room.  Four people had been killed instantly, and at least fifty others had been injured in the blast.  The Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN had claimed responsibility for planting the device.  No one has ever been charged with the bombing.

1975 Fraunces Tavern Bombing - NYPD first respondent

Boarding up the damage after the 1975 Fraunces Tavern bombing.

Continuing up Broad street, we were able to capture some before/after shots.  Most of the photos from 1999 came from the New York Public Library.

Broad street x Bridge street - Vintage postcard (date unknown) to 1999 to 2011

Broad street x Beaver street - Pre and Post Revs, one of the only pieces of street graffiti in this whole area.
I miss the small things of the NY I grew up in like the old Walk/Dont Walk signs.

65 Broad street (corner of Beaver street) - 1906 to 2011. Absolutely no signs of the past here!


Looking up at Wall street on Broad street in 1936. Almost all of these buildings are the same in 2011.
One of the few areas in New York where all the architecture is preserved.

An interesting phone booth at Exchange Place. Inside the phone booth, it says KINGS PRODUCTS LIMITED (Canadian company.) If you know more about this, email us at mail@smart-crew.com.

The corner of Wall Street and Broad has been home to the the J.P. Morgan & Co. Bank since the 1880s. Morgan demolished and rebuilt it in 1913 to create the building that stands there today.

"At noon on September 16, 1920, a horse drawn buggy loaded with 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of cast- iron slugs exploded across the street from the J.P. Morgan bank headquarters in downtown Manhattan, New York. The explosion blew out windows for blocks around, killed 30 immediately, injured hundreds of others and completely destroyed the interior of the Morgan building.. Those responsible were never found, but evidence in the form of a warning note received at a nearby office building suggested anarchists."

1920 JP Morgan Wall street bombing and the same location 91 years later.

Damage from the 1920 bombing that is still visible in 2011

Most people don't know that the famous "Charging Bull" statue was originally what people nowadays call "street art." "The bull's artist, Di Modica spent some US $360,000 to create, cast, and install the sculpture following the 1987 stock market crash as a symbol of the "strength and power of the American people."  The sculpture was the artist's idea, not the city's. In an act of "guerrilla art", he trucked it to Lower Manhattan and on December 15, 1989, installed it beneath a 60-foot Christmas tree in the middle of Broad Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange as a Christmas gift to the people of New York. That day, crowds came to look at the bull, with hundreds stopping to admire and analyze the gift as Di Modica handed out copies of a flier about his artwork.

The police seized the sculpture and placed it into an impound lot. The ensuing public outcry led the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to install it two blocks south of the Exchange in the plaza at Bowling Green. It is still there facing up Broadway today."  We tried reaching out to Di Modica and searching for photos of the statue when it was originally installed on Broad street but I had no luck.  If anyone has them out there, feel free to send them over!



That's all we had time for to cover on Broad street.  If you have any ideas for a street starting with "C" next, send over your ideas to mail@smart-crew.com.  We are trying to do different neighborhoods for each street and we're also open to doing all the boroughs.

Sources:
http://www.ehow.com/facts_6081437_history-broad-street-new-york.html
http://www.nysonglines.com/broad.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_bombing
http://terrorism.about.com/od/originshistory/p/WallStreetBomb.htm