Financial District in Manhattan in New York County, New York — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
New York Information Technology Center
55 Broad St
— Exploring Lower Manhattan —
Photographed By Bill Coughlin, September 10, 2011
1. New York Information Technology Center Marker
This 1960s American office building has been ripped apart and rewired with a 21st-century communications infrastructure that can instantly connect its tenants with sites around the world. Famous in the 1980s as the high finance offices of investment bankers Drexel Burnham Lambert, 55 Broad Street was reborn in 1996 as the Downtown headquarters of Silicon Alley – the dazzlingly hip computer / new media industry stretching along Broadway from 23rd Street down through the financial district.
The new media, on-line services, and software companies relocating here are devoted to the proposition that communications technology eliminates the significance of time and distance – allowing us to do business with the world from the remotest mountain top. Yet these very companies cluster here in the heart of Downtown for human warmth, commonality of interests, and deal-cementing, real-world handshakes – traditional Downtown values.
Erected by The Alliance for Downtown New York, Inc.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Communications. A significant historical year for this entry is 1996.
Location. Marker is missing. It was located near 40° 42.312′ N, 74° 0.687′ W. Marker was in Manhattan, New
this page online
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this location. Marinus Willett (a few steps from this marker); 75 Broad Street (within shouting distance of this marker); Broad Street History Path (within shouting distance of this marker); "Curbstone Brokers" (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Albert Sprague Bard (about 300 feet away); The First Huguenot Church in New York City (about 300 feet away); 13 South William Street (about 300 feet away); Delmonico's Building (about 400 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Manhattan.
More about this marker. At the upper right of the marker is a picture illustrating the information highway, which the caption says it “is lit by pulses of light flashing through glass fiber cables. Fiber optics transmit data over longer distances and with far greater speed than electricity sent through traditional wiring.” Below this is a picture of telephone poles with multiple levels of old copper wire with the caption “Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his telephone in 1877. Within three years the streets of Downtown had sprouted a tangle of telephone and telegraph wires
Photographed By Bill Coughlin, September 10, 2011
2. New York Information Technology Center Marker
Photos on the left of the marker have a caption of “A Western Union boy (top left), photographed by Jacob Riis, circa 1890. Wall Street has always lived and died on communications, from bicycle messengers, to telephone and telegraph, to ticker-tape, to electronic read-outs, to fax machines, to the internet, to subterranean systems (bottom left) of pneumatic tubes.”
Photographed By Bill Coughlin, September 10, 2011
3. Marker in Lower Manhattan
Photographed By Larry Gertner, 2000
4. New York Information Technology Center Marker
An earlier "Heritage Trail" iteration of the marker.
Credits. This page was last revised on August 7, 2023. It was originally submitted on September 16, 2011, by Bill Coughlin of Woodland Park, New Jersey. This page has been viewed 681 times since then and 18 times this year. Last updated on December 22, 2018, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on September 16, 2011, by Bill Coughlin of Woodland Park, New Jersey. 4. submitted on December 11, 2018, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.
