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, during the Dutch reoccupation in 1673-1674. Illustration published in the Valentine's Manual for 1862.

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. On August, 1673, began a brief Dutch reoccupation of New York, which lasted until October 31, 1674. The physical wall was removed by 1699, allowing the city to grow northwards. In 1709, a the Exchange was erected on the site of the old block-house, also used as a slave market. It became later a ferry-house.