The BroadsheetDAILY News of Lower Manhattan September 16, 2019

In 1913, J. P. Morgan & Company settled into its new headquarters at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets, an unidentified, unadorned four-story stone building in a growing neighborhood of steel-frame corporate skyscrapers. The firm did not need the extra notoriety or additional rent.

On September 11, thousands gathered at the World Trade Center site to honor those killed 18 years earlier when commercial airliners were repurposed into deadly missiles, striking a blow at an iconic symbol of capitalism by targeting prominent buildings in New York’s Financial District.

On September 16 tens of thousands will walk down Wall Street unaware that nearly 100 years ago New York City’s deadliest terror attack until 2001 took place right there. Though no plaque marks the spot, the scars are still visible if you know where to look.

As the noon hour approached on a fall Thursday morning in 1920, a horse-drawn wagon slowly made its way west down Wall Street toward “the Corner,” the high-powered intersection of Wall and Broad. Its driver came to a gentle stop in front of the Assay Office, where stockpiles of gold and silver were stored and tested for purity. But theft was not his motive.

In an instant both wagon and horse were vaporized, the closest automobile was tossed twenty feel in the air, a streetcar two blocks away was knocked off its tracks, and shattered windows rained down on noontime strollers a quarter mile away. Incredibly, the iconic bronze of George Washington surveys the devastation from the nearby steps of the Sub-Treasury without so much as a scratch.

Next door was the U.S. Sub-Treasury with its own cache of precious metals, including the heroic bronze of George Washington kickstarting a nation out on the front steps. And just across Broad Street stood the iconic façade of the New York Stock Exchange. For an anarchist with deadly intentions at the dawn of the Jazz Age, there could scarcely be a more target-rich environment.

But it was the building directly across narrow Wall Street that seems to have held the driver’s interest. J. P. Morgan & Company was the nation’s most powerful bank. Known as “the House of Morgan,” or simply “the House,” 23 Wall Street was the most important address in American finance. Its headquarters distinguished itself by its lack of ornamentation.

As other companies proclaimed greatness with buildings that scraped the sky, the House modestly rose four unadorned floors. Inconspicuous consumption at its finest. Of course, the firm announced its presence even more loudly by playing it so cool, and everyone-bankers, wagon drivers, and terrorists alike-knew whose house it was.

Few recalled the old wagon or its driver, who suddenly dropped the reins and hurried off. Some recalled Trinity’s bells begin to announce the noon hour. Everyone recalled the sudden flash of light and the explosion.

It was important to open the New York Stock Exchange the following morning to show the world its resiliency. To that end, the surrounding streets were quickly cleared of all debris, including potential evidence. NYPD spent two years sifting through ten tons of broken glass hauled away from the scene looking for evidence.

Just before the peal ended, one hundred pounds of dynamite exploded, vaporizing both wagon and horse and hurling 500 pounds of white-hot metal through streets crowded with bank clerks, secretaries, and messenger boys out for lunch.

An eerie silence followed, broken by the sound of crashing glass and the cries of 400 injured. Thirty-eight men, women, and children–and one horse, whose hooves were found two blocks away in front of Trinity Church–were killed. Those closest to the wagon were consumed by flames or cut to pieces by metal shrapnel. One hundred and fifty lay badly wounded.

Within a minute of the explosion, the Stock Exchange closed. Within an hour, 2,000 police officers, Red Cross nurses, and soldiers stationed on Governors Island were at the scene caring for the wounded and protecting the precious metals stored in the suddenly breached Assay Office.

The Wall Street bombing remains unsolved nearly a century later, though Italian anarchists–responsible for a wave of similar bombings across America the previous year–are the main suspects. In a successful effort to open the Stock Exchange the following morning and appear unfazed by the event, bodies and debris–including evidence that might have helped identify the perpetrators–were cleared away before the sun came up.

In that same spirit of defiance (though some argue it was more a cost-saving move), J. P. Morgan & Company quickly announced that it would not repair the damaged stones. Though the wooden wall that gave the street its name is long gone, a stone wall on “the Corner” tells a Wall Street tale worth remembering.

Donor wall at Mt. Sinai Hospital

Our successful small business in FIDI is looking to grow.

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September 16 – 29, 2019

As the Sun’s arc shortens in the skies of Earth’s northern hemisphere, we approach equal day and night.

Soon after the autumnal equinox, which occurs on September 23 this year, darkness expands over daylight. We will see more of the distant stars in our galaxy than our own star, the Sun. Through the long nights we might imagine that many of the stars in our skies are suns that light and warm other planets, making life possible. When we pause to think cosmically, we awake to boundless amazement at the existence of planet Earth, the precision and beauty of our home planet’s functioning.

How does each of us contribute to protecting the health of our planetary home in the cosmos? Human health – physical and mental – derives from healthy environments. Our concern in Eyes to the Sky is with what has been described as Earth’s largest habitat, the sky. A clear blue sky lifts our mood. We all recognize and decry air pollution, often seen as a band of smog around the horizon of an otherwise blue sky. Air pollution is not only disfiguring, it is a health hazard. Likewise, the haze that more or less obliterates – especially in towns and cities – what would be a clear, awe-inspiring, star-filled sky at night, is slow to be recognized for what it is, a smog of light pollution. Light pollution has been discovered to be as hazardous to our physical and mental health as other toxins. It is also within our reach to clean it up.

Resources:

Click here to read more.

Is the Evening Sky Doomed? Light pollution is threatening our ability to see the cosmos.  NY Times 

It begins with, “The lights we use to illuminate our cities and suburbs don’t just shine on our sidewalks and streets; they also shine up into the sky, where they bounce around in the atmosphere, creating a smog of light. That featureless glow of our nocturnal skies is called “light pollution.”

Many ships pass Lower Manhattan on their way to and from the Midtown Passenger Ship Terminal.  Others may be seen on their way to or from piers in Brooklyn and Bayonne.  Stated times, when appropriate, are for passing the Colgate clock in Jersey City, New Jersey, and are based on sighting histories, published schedules and intuition. They are also subject to tides, fog, winds, freak waves, hurricanes and the whims of upper management.

City Transportation Study Finds That Lower Manhattan Bus Service Is Among Most Sluggish in Five Boroughs

	Bus speeds in Lower Manhattan average below eight miles per hour

The annual New York City Mobility Report, produced by the City’s Department of Transportation, contains two data points that will come as no surprise residents of Lower Manhattan. The first of these is that the median speed for Downtown bus service ranks among the slowest of any community in the five boroughs. And the second is that this creeping pace is, if anything, getting creepier. To read more…

Residents and Local Leaders Recall 18 Septembers Ago

Firemen at Liberty Street and South End Avenue   on the afternoon of September 11, 2001.  photo: Robert Simko

A panel of residents and local leaders participated in a panel discussion at the South Street Seaport, hosted by the Howard Hughes Corporation and moderated by CNBC’s Contessa Brewer, who lives in Lower Manhattan.

 Swaps & Trades Respectable Employment

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