Exploring Downtown

Before the income tax was invented, the duty levied on imported goods financed almost the entire cost of America's federal government - and as much as 80 per cent of that duty came through the Port of New York, making the New York Custom House a major national financial power. That's why Customs could build the sumptuous, Beaux-Arts masterpiece that majestically anchors the vista at the foot of Broadway. Cass Gilbert's extraordinary monument is laced with symbols of international trade from Mercury, god of commerce, to Daniel Chester French's huge, allegorical statues of, from left to right, Asia, America, Europe and Africa.

The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House now houses the George Gustav Heye Center of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, bringing full circle the history of this remarkable site. The Museum sits on the original Algonquin trading ground at the foot of the Wiechquaekeck Trail, a centuries-old trade route whose original path has evolved into today's Broadway. The Custom House adaptation for reuse as the Museum has returned a Native American presence to the site.

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Fort Amsterdam
Peter Caesar Alberti
Bowling Green Fence
American Merchant Marine
George Gustav Heye
Sharing the Circle
Native People Of The Western Hemisphere
Fort Amsterdam
Places of Exchange
"North America" sculpted by Daniel Chester French

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