Charging Bull, sometimes referred to as the Bull of Wall Street or the Bowling Green Bull, is a bronze sculpture that stands on Broadway just north of Bowling Green in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The 7,100-pound (3,200 kg) bronze sculpture, standing 11 feet (3.4 m) tall and measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) long, depicts a bull, the symbol of financial optimism and prosperity. Charging Bull is a popular tourist destination that draws thousands of people a day, symbolizing Wall Street and the Financial District.
The sculpture in 2020
Charging Bull is at the northern tip of Bowling Green.
A poster showing a ballerina on the Charging Bull to promote the Occupy Wall Street movement
Charging Bull covered in a blue tarp and surrounded by barricades in June 2020 during the George Floyd protests in New York City
Bowling Green (New York City)
Bowling Green is a small, historic, public park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, at the southern end and address origin of Broadway. Located in the 17th century next to the site of the original Dutch fort of New Amsterdam, it served as a public gathering place and under the English was designated as a park in 1733. It is the oldest public park in New York City and is surrounded by its original 18th-century cast iron fence. The park included an actual bowling green and a monumental equestrian statue of King George III prior to the American Revolutionary War. Pulled down during the revolution, the 4000-pound statute is said to have been melted for ammunition to fight the British.
Bowling Green looking north from the fountain
Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C., (c. 1859) A romanticized Victorian era painting with historical inaccuracies: the sculpture is depicted in 1850s garb, and Native Americans, women and children are at the scene.
George Washington at Verplanks Point by John Trumbull 1790; the remains of the George III statue pedestal can be seen at the bottom between the horse's legs.
An 1859 engraving showing the remains of the George III statue pedestal in Bowling Green Park