at , New York , 10005
<p><b>Wall Street</b> is a 0.7mi street running eight blocks, roughly northwest to southeast, from <a href="/pages/w/580337722043239">Broadway</a> to <a href="/pages/w/138769372813360">South Street</a> on the <a href="/pages/w/107508669271741">East River</a> in the <a href="/pages/w/111918888824510">Financial District</a> of <a href="/pages/w/108581625833851">Lower Manhattan</a>, <a href="/pages/w/111979848819624">New York City</a>. Over time, the term has become a <a href="/pages/w/106078362763735">metonym</a> for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial sector (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or signifying New York-based financial interests.</p><p>Anchored by Wall Street, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading <a href="/pages/w/106660836040913">financial center</a> of the world, and the city is home to the world's two <a href="/pages/w/103188056403191">largest stock exchanges</a> by total <a href="/pages/w/105444776155213">market capitalization</a>, the <a href="/pages/w/112330642115471">New York Stock Exchange</a> and <a href="/pages/w/106217882741926">NASDAQ</a>. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall Street area, including the <a href="/pages/w/107912452565308">New York Mercantile Exchange</a>, the <a href="/pages/w/112759082068675">New York Board of Trade</a>, and the former <a href="/pages/w/104021696301443">American Stock Exchange</a>.</p><h2>History</h2><h3>Early years</h3><p>There are varying accounts about how the Dutch-named "de Waal Straat" got its name. A generally accepted version is that the name of the street was derived from an earthen wall on the northern boundary of the <a href="/pages/w/112971605382600">New Amsterdam</a> settlement, perhaps to protect against English colonial encroachment or incursions by native Americans. A conflicting explanation is that Wall Street was named after <i><a href="/pages/w/108966565803611">Walloons</a></i>— the Dutch name for a <i>Walloon</i> is <i>Waal</i>. Among the first settlers that embarked on the ship "Nieu Nederlandt" in 1624 were 30 Walloon families. The Dutch word "wal" can be translated as <i>palisade</i>. However, even some English maps show the name as Waal Straat, and not as Wal Straat.</p>
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