My name is Marty Rubin and I love American History. Please take a walk with me and envision --- New Amsterdam -- then New York -- and then the United States of America

For many years, as I conducted my business with New York financial institutions, I walked the streets of lower manhattan especially the Financial District right down to Battery Park at the New York Harbor where the Hudson and East Rivers join. It is one of the best and largest natural harbors in the world.

My passion for and knowledge of American History made me realize that I had been walking on the same ground where all of our country's founders had walked. So often I passed places where momentous events took place in the 16 and 1700's. Our historic heroes did their business and therefore stood where I stood. They touched some of the same buildings that I touched almost three hundred years before.

My approach to history is simple because I believe it should be told as a fascinating story that is understood and therefore remembered. I decided that I would bring my kids and grand kids and perhaps other young people to this area and share my knowledge and enthusiasm about the colonization of America and the birth of our nation. What a joy it is to have it right here visible and so accessible. We are able to walk where our founding fathers walked, lived, worked and created a democracy that became a shining star for all the world. Fellow Americans like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John and Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Tom Paine, James Madison on and on.

Starting at a point on Water Street, a short distance from Wall Street, we can see the East River and Brooklyn beyond and the Staten Island Ferry and Staten Island in the other direction. There is a place to sit on a low wall and set the stage for our two hour experience.

We begin in 1524 as we visualize Giovanni Verrazano, an Italian sea captain, anchored in the outer bay. He is on his way up our coast after touching North America at the Outer Banks off North Carolina. He sat anchored, but never set foot on land or entered either river.

In 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, arrived at the Harbor looking for an all water passage to the Far East. He sailed about 150 miles up a River which was originally named the North and later re-named the Hudson. He eventually realized the water was turning fresh and becoming too shallow for his ship so he turned around and returned home.

In 1624 the Dutch West India Company sent 110 French Protestants (Huguenots) to establish a settlement called New Amsterdam on the island between two rivers facing the harbor. This was a business venture and not a sanctuary or a government colony.There was freedom of religion and free trade unlike the British settlements in Massachusetts and Virginia which were colonies led by religious zealots. The Lenape Indians lived in New Jersey and on the Island of Manhattan. The indian word for their land was Mana - hatta which translated to the island of many hills. Governor Peter Minuit paid the indians 60 guilders worth of trade goods, about $1000.00, for the land.

The town prospered. There was plenty of game and fish plus fertile soil for farming. The small village had a protective wall in case the peaceful Indians turned hostile. This is where Wall Street is today. It runs East and West from Water Street in the East to Broadway in the West.

I l The forty years of the Dutch enterprise ended in 1664 when a British fleet sailed in to the harbor and captured the settlement. The British could not tolerate a Dutch presence in North America .. The town was renamed New York after King George ll's brother, the Duke of York.

I enjoy spending some time talking about establishing the town and its size and shape (quite small). Let's stand up now and walk north on Water Street to the beginning of Wall Street and turn left to head West. This is the symbol and heart of the New York Financial District. Wall Street is considered the money headquarters of our country and to many foreign countries as well.

We stop at #40 Wall Street which is where the Continental Congress first met and then on to #57 where Alexander Hamilton had his law office and lived with his family on the second floor. At the corner of Wall and Broad Streets, #23 Wall, was the J.P. Morgan Bank, now residential apartments. For a time Mr. Morgan was the richest man in America and on two occasions, 1895 and 1907, saved the United States Government from financial failure by loaning his personal funds so it would not default on outstanding loans. Later it was the site of the worst terrorist bombing. prior to 9/11, that killed 39 people in September 1920. Anarchists were suspected, but no one was ever convicted.

Across the street on Wall is Federal Hall where George Washington took his oath of office as the first President of the United States in 1789. There is a long flight of stone steps and an imposing statue of the Father of Our Country. We can sit for awhile, rest and feel the presence of so much of our history.

I l The Revolutionary War lasted eight years from 1775 to 1783. Washington resigned his command and returned to his home and family in Mt. Vernon, Virginia.

The Constitution was written in 1787, ratified in 1788 and implemented in March of 1789. Washington was unanimously elected President by Congress and John Adams as Vice President. He began his term in New York. The capital was in New York for one year until 1790, then for ten years in Philadelphia until 1800 and then permanently in the District of Columbia. How D.C. was established is a unique story -- a dinner meeting between Jefferson and Hamilton created the plan.

Across from Federal Hall on the corner of Wall and Broad Streets is the New York Stock Exchange. We can spend time discussing Stocks and Bonds and their importance in funding businesses and therefore helping to build a country's strength. Stocks give you an actual piece of a company (ownership) and Bonds are loans to businesses that are paid back with interest. In 1792 twenty-four stock brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement establishing the New York Stock Exchange (sitting under a buttonwood tree on Broad Street).

We get up from the Federal Hall steps and continue one block further to Broadway. This is a main artery of the City and started as an Indian trail and later as the main wagon route northward. There are two Churches that are significant as well as interesting to visit especially their very old graves. Alexander Hamilton's tomb is there.

Trinity Church is on Broadway facing Wall Street and was founded in 1697 by Anglicans that was Church of England. Queen Anne gave the Church a land grant in 1705 of 215 acres north of the Church to insure its success . Eventually that grant gave Trinity six million square feet of office space and a huge revenue stream. Trinity built St. Paul's further north on Broadway as an additional Chapel. Trinity has been re-built three times over the past three hundred plus years and has maintained 11 Chapels and funded projects all over the world.

We now retrace our steps down Wall Street and turn right on to Broad Street past the Stock Exchange. Walk a few blocks to Pearl Street. On the corner is a three story yellow brick building which is the Fraunces Tavern. It is the oldest building in New York, built in 1719, and the oldest continually operating Tavern in the United States. It was built as a home for the Delancey family and sold to Samual Fraunces in 1762 where he started his tavern. He first called it the Queen's Head.

In 1783 General George Washington hosted a farewell luncheon for his military staff at the Tavern and then left from there to his home and family in Mt. Vernon, Virginia.

We end our walking tour with an excellent lunch at the Tavern feeling the benevolent spirits of all of the founding fathers who took meals there as well as the Sons of Liberty who gathered secretly to plan the rebellion. Samuel Fraunces was a secret rebel. The second floor of the building served as the location for our first Department of State.

At lunch I talk about other significant events that contributed to our country's well being;

Jefferson and Hamilton arranged a deal where Jefferson convinced the southern states to push congress to pay the northern state's outstanding war debts and Hamilton pushed the northern states to approve the location of the Federal Capitol in the south. A contribution of a piece of Maryland and a piece of Virginia established the District of Columbia. The amazing DeWitt Clinton was a visionary and a doer. He was the Mayor of New York who envisioned millions of people coming from Europe and many choosing to live in his city. He created a Commission of Planners who hired thousands of workers to literally level the Island with picks and shovels -- dumped the many hills in to the many ponds. They then laid out a grid with 155 streets going East and West and 12 avenues going North and South. Practically all the streets and avenues were numbered so a person not able to speak English could know where he was because numbers are universal..This happened as early as 1812. When Clinton was Governor of the State he created the Erie Canal that made it possible for Mid-West Grain, Ore, Furs and Lumber to come to New York City faster and cheaper by boat. It connected the Hudson River with the Great Lakes and made sure that New York would be the most important Sea Port in the country.

By 1664, when the British took ownership of New York, there were 1500 residents and new settlements established up the Hudson and across into New Jersey (Jersey City and Hoboken).

There is no end to the history and wondrous stories of how our country grew and the people that helped do it. Freedom to dream and free to take risks with no embarrassment if you failed.

God Bless America.