Page "Wall Street" Paragraph 16

In the first few decades, both residences and businesses occupied the area, but increasingly business predominated.

" There are old stories of people's houses being surrounded by the clamor of business and trade and the owners complaining that they can't get anything done ," according to a historian named Burrows.

The opening of the Erie Canal in the early 19th century meant a huge boom in business for New York City, since it was the only major eastern seaport which had direct access by inland waterways to ports on the Great Lakes.

Wall Street became the " money capital of America ".