Economy
The Curious Case of New York's Two Economic Centers
Why Midtown and Wall Street developed both separately and parallel to each other.
Most cities have a single economic center or “central business district,” but New York City has two. There is the original downtown economic hub around Wall Street and the financial district, and then there is Midtown, which developed later and is home to the world’s largest collection of corporate headquarters.
As with most things New York, there’s no shortage of explanations for how and why the economic geography of the city turned out this way. Some say it was because there was not enough sturdy bedrock to build more skyscrapers downtown. Others say it happened when Grand Central Station opened and made it easier for commuters to get into Midtown.