Bowling Green - New York City history with Romancing Manhattan Tours

Here at the very beginning of Broadway, still in the historic Financial District, we come to Bowling Green park. In 1732, on orders of the city council, this little tiny park became NYC’s first public park. It also marks the very beginning of Broadway, one of the longest running streets in the world which starts here in front of the famous statue of the bull here at Bowling Green Park and extends all the way across Manhattan and continues all the way up and ends just short of Canada. On the north side of of park is the ever famous statue of the Charging Bull. The second most photographed statue in NYC after the Statue of Liberty. Yet, the most interesting thing about this tiny 1 acre park is its connection to the Revolutionary War. On July 9th 1776, prior to marching off to battle George Washington boldly read the Declaration of Independence to his troops a half mile north in what today is City Hall Park. Fired up from hearing their commander in chief read the declaration, Washington’s troops as well as the local New Yorkers gathered marched here down to Bowling Green where there stood a statue of King George III. They proceeded to tear down the statue where they then had it brought to a local foundry and melted into bullets. The perfect irony of course being that the British were essentially being shot at and killed by their own King! The wider posts on the wrought-iron fence surrounding the park, dating back to the early 1770s, had British crowns on the tops of them. These too were sawed off and melted down into musket balls. You can even feel the unevenness of the sawed off crowns if you rub your fingers on the top of any one of the posts. No doubt one or two of our founding fathers had touched this very fence. In fact, as we mentioned earlier, George Washington had his presidential mansion just up the block at number 39 Broadway, and Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson lived just a few short blocks away. Romancing Manhattan Tours 276 5th Avenue New York, New York 10001 Tel: (212) 918-1981 www.romancingmanhattantours.com