The southern tip of Manhattan is where New York began, as a small Dutch trading post with a fort, a windmill and a wall. Four hundred years later the old street plan is still there under the skyscrapers, crooked and narrow, and walking it is like reading the city's story in order. This walk starts by the harbor in Battery Park, heads up through the Financial District past the bull, the Stock Exchange and the spot where George Washington became president, pauses at the quiet churchyard of Trinity and the memorial pools of the World Trade Center, and finishes at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. It is about 2.8 kilometers, a little under two miles, and one of the richest self-guided walking tours you can do in a single morning in New York.

Before you set off

The walking takes about forty minutes, but give yourself two to three hours, because you will want time at the water, in the churchyard and at the memorial. The route is flat and paved, with a few cobbled streets around Wall Street and some uneven sidewalk. Weekday mornings are busy and full of energy, with office workers rushing past; weekends are calmer and better for lingering, though the bull and the memorial draw crowds every day. The tall buildings cast deep shade, so the streets can feel cool and windy even on a sunny day, and the harbor is breezy. The 9/11 Memorial pools are free and open to all; the museum beneath them, the Statue of Liberty ferries and the inside of Federal Hall have their own hours and tickets, so check before you go if you plan to visit them. If you want to walk out on the Brooklyn Bridge at the end, allow another half hour or more.

Battery Park

Walk to the railing along the water and look out over the harbor. Out on the water, small but unmistakable on her island, stands the Statue of Liberty, and a little to her right lies Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants first stepped onto American soil. Ferries crisscross the harbor all day, and on a clear day you can see the hills of Staten Island and the long span of the Verrazzano Bridge in the distance. The park takes its name from the gun batteries that once guarded this shore. Behind you stands the round, red sandstone fort called Castle Clinton, built just before the War of 1812 to defend the harbor. Its later life was even more interesting. It became a concert hall, where the Swedish singer Jenny Lind gave her first American performance in 1850 before a huge crowd. Then, from 1855, it served as the country's main immigration station, years before Ellis Island opened, and millions of new arrivals passed through these walls. Later still it became the city aquarium. Today it is where you buy tickets for the Statue of Liberty boats. The ground you stand on is mostly landfill; the original shoreline ran well behind you. When you are ready, walk northeast through the park toward the busy streets, about five minutes, to a small oval park at the bottom of Broadway.

Charging Bull

You are at Bowling Green, the oldest public park in New York, and at its northern tip stands the bull. It weighs more than three tons, with its head down, nostrils flared and tail whipping, ready to charge. Its story is unusual. The Sicilian-born artist Arturo Di Modica made it at his own expense after the stock market crash of 1987, as a symbol of the strength and optimism of the American people. In December 1989 he and some friends trucked it to Lower Manhattan in the middle of the night and left it in front of the Stock Exchange, without asking anyone. The police removed it the next day, but the public outcry was so loud that the city found it a new home here, where it has stayed ever since. Notice the oval park behind it too. The iron fence around Bowling Green dates from 1771. In July 1776, after the Declaration of Independence was read in New York, a crowd pulled down the gilded lead statue of King George III that stood here, and much of the metal is said to have been melted into musket balls. Facing the park to the south is the grand Custom House, by the architect Cass Gilbert, whose name you will meet again on this walk. Now walk north up Broadway for about four minutes and turn right onto Wall Street, then follow it to the corner of Broad Street.

Wall Street

Wall Street New York Stop at the corner of Wall and Broad, and look up at the huge white temple front of the New York Stock Exchange, its six tall columns often draped with an enormous American flag. Wall Street is short and narrow, and the name comes from an actual wall. In the 1650s the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam built a wooden palisade across the island here, marking the northern edge of their town. The wall was gone by 1699, but the street that ran beside it kept the name. Traders started meeting here in the 1790s, and in 1792 a group of brokers signed an agreement, traditionally said to have been made under a buttonwood tree, that set the rules for trading and grew into the Stock Exchange. Now turn toward the building on the corner opposite the Exchange, a plain, low stone building at 23 Wall Street, once the headquarters of J. P. Morgan's bank. Look closely at its Wall Street wall. The stone is pitted with small scars. On September 16, 1920, a bomb hidden in a horse-drawn wagon exploded right here at lunchtime, killing dozens of people. The case was never solved, and the bank chose to leave the scars in place. Now look across Wall Street to the columned building with the statue on its steps. It is a few steps away.