Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York, is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough of New York City. The neighborhood is the historical birthplace of New York City and for its first 225 years was the entirety of the city. Lower Manhattan serves as the seat of government of both Manhattan and the entire City of New York. Because there are no municipally defined boundaries for the neighborhood, a precise population cannot be quoted, but several sources have suggested that it was one of the fastest-growing locations in New York City between 2010 and 2020, related to the influx of young adults and significant development of new housing units.
Lower Manhattan, including Wall Street, anchoring New York City's role as the world's principal fintech and financial center, with One World Trade Center, the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere
New Amsterdam, centered in what eventually became Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year England took control and renamed it New York
Peter Stuyvesant
Cooper Union at Astor Place, one of Lower Manhattan's most storied buildings, where Abraham Lincoln gave his famed Cooper Union speech on February 27, 1860
Manhattan is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is coextensive with New York County, the smallest county by geographical area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world.
Midtown Manhattan, the world's largest central business district, in the foreground, with Lower Manhattan and its Financial District in the background
New Amsterdam, centered in what eventually became Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year England took control and renamed it New York
Statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall on Wall Street, where in 1789 he was sworn in as the first U.S. president.
Manhattan's Little Italy on the Lower East Side, c. 1900