- published: 13 Mar 2012
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Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or signifying New York-based financial interests. It is the home of the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall Street area, including NASDAQ, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade, and the former American Stock Exchange. Anchored by Wall Street, New York City is one of the world's principal financial centers.
There are varying accounts about how the Dutch-named "de Waal Straat" got its name. A generally accepted version is that the name of the street name was derived from an earthen wall on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement, perhaps to protect against English colonial encroachment or incursions by native Americans. A conflicting explanation is that Wall Street was named after Walloons -- possibly a Dutch abbreviation for Walloon being Waal. Among the first settlers that embarked on the ship "Nieu Nederlandt" in 1624 were 30 Walloon families.
60 Wall Street is a 55-story skyscraper (745 feet, 227 meters) in Lower Manhattan, which currently serves as the American headquarters of Deutsche Bank.
Built between 1987 and 1989 as the headquarters for J.P. Morgan & Co. (now absorbed into JPMorgan Chase), the tower has over 1.7 million square feet (160,000 m²) of office space, with all floors being occupied by Deutsche Bank. Completed in 1989, 60 Wall Street was the largest corporate building to be built in the Financial District.
The tower was designed by Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates to fit its surroundings with a postmodern, Greek-revival, and neoclassical look to emphasize both height and size. WSP Cantor Seinuk is the Structural Engineer.
60 Wall Street was obtained by Deutsche Bank in 2001 for $600 million, with uncertain plans for the building. However, post 9/11, due to the loss of the 130 Liberty Street Deutsche Bank building in the terrorist attack, Deutsche Bank moved more than 4,500 of its personnel into this building. There are two floors for representative meetings, 20 and 47. Deutsche Bank owned the building, until it was sold in a sale-and-leaseback agreement to a private party for over $1.2 billion.
"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.
The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.
The earliest recorded use[citation needed] of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." [dubious – discuss] In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.