The Financial District - Historic Walking Tour with Ticket to the Fraunces Tavern Museum

 

As one of the oldest European-founded cities in North America, the Financial District of New York City is one of the best places to see important places for revolutionary American history, while also exploring Wall Street, whose own foundations lay in the revolution.

Highlights
- Walk where slaves were punished, and liberty poles put up in City Hall Park
- See George Washington’s pew in St Paul’s Chapel
- Spend time where the Bill of Rights was written at the Federal Hall National Memorial
- Visit Alexander Hamilton’s grave at Trinity Church
- Stop by the original national banks and learn about Hamilton's role in establishing the US credit system
- See where a mob tore down a statue to George III on Bowling Green
- Learn about how the British left New York in Battery Park
- Finish your tour with entrance tickets to the Fraunces Tavern Museum, where you can imagine revolutionary brothers dreaming about the future of the city and the new country.

Outside New York City Hall is City Hall Park. Now a common meeting place for the city’s inhabitants, it was historically the site of brutality: slaves suspected of starting fires in 1741 were burnt alive here. Two decades later, the first of five liberty poles were erected. Ten years later—though in the same spot, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to George Washington and the Continental Army.

Then, while in the area, your guide will take you through the 9/11 Memorial, while sharing with you the history of the World Trade Center. Discuss the tragic events of 9/11, and walk you through the Memorial’s design. Next to it is the rebuilt One World Trade Center. Often referred to as Freedom Tower, it stretches 1776 feet above the ground.

After the memorial, your guide will take you to St Paul’s Chapel. Built in 1766, and with King George III’s coat of arms still present on the balcony, this Episcopalian chapel is done in a Georgian architectural style. The place where George Washington worshipped after his inauguration, his pew is still there beneath an 18th-century painting of the Great Seal of the United States.

Moving towards Federal Hall and Trinity Church, your guide will tell you about the role that New York played during the Revolutionary War. As you walk through streets of Lower Manhattan that burnt down following the retreat of Continental troops— an event which remains slightly controversial to this day— you will learn how Washington tried to prevent the British from taking the city in 1776, escaping disaster across the East River in Brooklyn before being forced to retreat from Manhattan.

While the place is now covered by the marble Federal Hall National Memorial, your guide will be able to help you imagine the building it replaced. As the original Capitol Building of the USA, it hosted the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, the Continental Congress and the First Congress, including the writing of the Bill of Rights. From there, it is a short walk to Trinity Church, where George Washington was a regular worshipper. Be sure to venture to the left of the church to see the grave of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton; a man who played a key role in America’s economic path and is the namesake of the 11 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.

Passing the site of the Alexander Macomb House, the second presidential mansion of the USA where George Washington lived in 1790, your guide will take you into the heart of the New York Financial District; and the old colonial city. Stopping at Bowling Green, your guide will talk about how, in 1776, a crowd tore down a statue of George III to convert it into bullets for the Continental Army— leaving marks that can still be seen today.

Walking within the heart of the old Dutch city, you will also venture down Broad Street – built on the site of a filled-in Dutch canal – to Fraunces Tavern where George Washington dismissed his officers in 1783. Here, your tour will end with tickets to the Fraunces Tavern Museum, which you can enjoy at your own leisure.

Others
This tour only visits the 9/11 memorial, which is outdoor. The tour does not visit the 9/11 Museum.