Block-House and City Gate, Foot of Wall Street

Original title: The Block-House and City Gate (foot of present Wall Street), 1674. View from over the water, facing west. Source: New York Public Library.

This is where the wall, which later gave its name to Wall Street, met the East River. During the Dutch rule the street was called Het Cingel. The place was a fortified entrance known as the Water Gate, now the corner of Wall Street and Pearl Street. The English took control of New York in 1664 and this street was officially renamed Wall Street in 1686. The physical wall was removed in the 1690s, allowing the city to grow northwards. In 1709, a slave market was erected on the site of the old block-house. It became later a ferry-house.