Charging Bull and Bowling Green
New York’s oldest park, where a king was toppled in 1776, and a bull that was dropped off here in secret
The story
Before you is Bowling Green, the oldest park in New York, and the bronze Charging Bull. First, the park. In 1733 the city leased this patch of land as a lawn for bowling. The rent was one peppercorn a year. In 1770 an equestrian statue of King George the Third in gilded lead was put up here, and in 1771 the green was surrounded with an iron fence. On the ninth of July 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read to Washington’s troops. That same day a crowd pulled the king’s statue down. The lead, it is said, was melted into bullets for the army. And according to tradition, the royal crowns were sawn off the fence. The fence itself still stands; take a look at it. Now, the bull. The Italian sculptor Arturo Di Modica made it after the stock market crash of 1987. In December 1989 he set the bull down at night, without permission, right in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The next day the police hauled it away. But a week later the city agreed to place it here, at the northern tip of Bowling Green. That is how an uninvited gift became the symbol of Wall Street.
Visiting
Bowling Green, at the start of Broadway in Lower Manhattan; Bowling Green subway station is next to it. The park and the bull can be seen at any time, free of charge. In the daytime there is a line for photos with the bull; early morning is less crowded.
Photos
Sources
- NYC Parks — Bowling Green: Bowling Green Fence and Park
- Downtown Alliance — Charging Bull, by Arturo Di Modica
- Wikipedia (EN) — Bowling Green (New York City)
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