Bowling Green

New York’s oldest – and possibly tiniest – public park is believed to have been the spot where Dutch settler Peter Minuit paid Native Americans the equivalent of $24 to purchase Manhattan Island. The tree-filled triangle was leased by the people of New York from the English crown beginning in 1733, for the token amount of one peppercorn each. But an angry mob, inspired by George Washington’s nearby reading of the Declaration of Independence, descended upon the site in 1776 and tore down a large statue of King George III; a fountain now stands in its place. The 7000lb bronze Charging Bull sculpture by Arturo Di Modica, which famously sits at the northern edge of the park, was actually placed here permanently after it mysteriously appeared in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989, two years after a market crash. Now it’s the unwitting subject of constant tourist photos and is an unintentional Wall Street icon.