Four Continents (French)

The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is a custom house erected in 1902–1907 by the federal government to house the duty collection operations for the Port of New York. Designed by Cass Gilbert in the Beaux-Arts style, it is at 1 Bowling Green in the Financial District near the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City, roughly on the same spot as Fort Amsterdam and Government House. The Custom House was proposed in 1889 as a replacement for the previous New York Custom House at 55 Wall Street. Due to various disagreements, the Bowling Green Custom House was not approved until 1899; Gilbert was selected as an architect following a competition. The building was officially opened in 1907, and the murals in the rotunda were added in a Works Progress Administration project in 1938. The United States Customs Service moved out of the building in 1974, and it sat abandoned for over a decade until renovations in the late 1980s. In 1990, the Custom House was renamed to commemorate Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and its first Secretary of the Treasury. The building presently contains the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 1994, as well as the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Since 2012, it is also the home to the National Archives at New York City. The exterior of the U.S. Custom House was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965, while part of the interior was similarly designated in 1979. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1976. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.

Fort Amsterdam was a fort on the southern tip of Manhattan at the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers. It was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then English/British rule of the colony of New Netherland and subsequently the Province of New York from 1625 or 1626, until being torn down in 1790 after the American Revolution. It was the nucleus of the settlement in the area that became New Amsterdam and eventually New York City. In its subsequent history it was known under various such names as Fort James, Fort Willem Hendrick and its anglicized Fort William Henry, Fort Anne, and Fort George. The fort changed hands eight times in various battles including the Battle of Long Island in the American Revolution, when volleys were exchanged between the fort and British emplacements on Governor's Island. After the fort's demolition Government House was constructed on the site as a possible house for the United States President. The site is now occupied by the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, which houses the National Museum of the American Indian; Bowling Green is nearby. The construction of the fort marked the official founding date of New York City as recognized by its seal. In October 1683 what would become the first session of the New York legislature convened at the fort. Guns at the fort formed a battery that would later be the namesake of nearby Battery Park.

The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The center features contemporary and historical exhibits of art and artifacts by and about Native Americans. The center has its origin in the Museum of the American Indian founded by George Heye in 1916. It became part of the national museum and Smithsonian in 1987.

The Government House was a Georgian-style mansion at the foot of Broadway, south of Bowling Green, on the site previously occupied by Fort George in Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1790 by the state of New York, it was intended to be the executive mansion for President George Washington, but he never occupied it. Before it was completed, the federal government moved temporarily to Philadelphia; then permanently to Washington, D.C. It then became the state governor’s residence and was used by George Clinton and John Jay. Later it was leased to John Avery and was known as the Elysian Boarding House. After the passage of the Customs Administration Act in 1799, it was converted into the Custom House in New York. Parts of the building were later leased to the American Academy of Arts, who then offered space to the New-York Historical Society in 1809. In 1813, the property was sold to the city. In 1815, the land was sold to the public and the building demolished.

The New York Landmarks Conservancy is a non-profit organization "dedicated to preserving, revitalizing, and reusing" historic structures in New York state. It provides technical and financial skills to owners of historic properties. Since its founding, the conservancy has provided more than $60 million in grants and loans.Since its founding in 1973, the organization has loaned and granted more than $60 million in more than 1,300 restoration projects throughout New York. Its restoration projects include the former U.S. Custom House, the Alice Austin House and the Weeksville Heritage Center. The New York Landmarks Conservancy's annual Lucy G. Moses Preservation award recognizes notable preservation efforts.Peg Breen is president of the organization.

2 Broadway is an office building at the south end of Broadway, near Bowling Green Park, in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The 32-story building, designed by Emery Roth & Sons and constructed from 1958 to 1959, contains offices for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). 2 Broadway serves as the headquarters for some of the MTA's subsidiary agencies. The building is on a site bounded by Broadway and Whitehall Street to the west, Beaver Street to the north, and Stone Street to the south. It fills most of the lot, with the building rising in triple setbacks. The facade is covered in blue-green tinted glass, which dates from a 1999 redesign by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The site was previously occupied by George B. Post's New York Produce Exchange building, which was completed in 1884. Plans for the skyscraper date to 1953, when William Lescaze devised plans to replace the Produce Exchange Building. Emery Roth & Sons were selected to be the architects when Uris Buildings Corporation took over the project. The original tenants were largely financial firms, while the Produce Exchange owned the land under the building and occupied some lower floors. Olympia and York acquired 2 Broadway in 1976 and the underlying land in 1983. After the building became mostly vacant during the early 1990s, Tamir Sapir purchased 2 Broadway in 1995. The building was renovated after the MTA leased all the space in 1998, although the project encountered high costs and several delays.

The Kemble Building was an eight-story edifice located at 15–25 Whitehall Street between Bridge Street and Stone Street. It stood opposite the Custom House in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Owned by the Ogden Goelet Estate, the structure adjoined the seven-story New York Produce Exchange Building. At first employed as a cotton warehouse, it was used for office space beginning in 1882. Prior to the Kemble Building's erection, the site was occupied by the business of Hendrick Willemsen, a baker and bread inspector.

The New York Produce Exchange was a commodities exchange headquartered in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It served a network of produce and commodities dealers across the United States. Founded in 1861 as the New York Commercial Association, it was originally headquartered at Whitehall Street in a building owned by the New York Produce Exchange Company. The Association was renamed the New York Produce Exchange in 1868 and took over the original building in 1872. Between 1881 and 1884, the Produce Exchange built a new headquarters on 2 Broadway, facing Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. The structure, designed by George B. Post, was the first in the world to combine wrought iron and masonry in its structural construction. The main feature of the structure was an exchange floor that measured approximately 220 by 144 feet (67 by 44 m). The Produce Exchange was profitable following the building's completion. By the 1880s, it had the largest membership of any exchange in the United States, with a maximum of three thousand members. By 1900, the exchange was doing $15 million a day in business. In the early 20th century, activity on the Produce Exchange started to decline due to competition from other cities. The Produce Exchange sold off its building for development in the 1950s; the headquarters was demolished to make way for a skyscraper called 2 Broadway. The exchange had its trading floor in the skyscraper from 1959 until 1973, when it was restructured as the Produce Exchange Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust.

The Bowling Green station is a station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at Broadway and Battery Place (at Bowling Green), in the Financial District of Manhattan. It is served by the 4 train at all times and the 5 train at all times except late nights. The station opened in 1905 as an extension of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT)'s original subway line to South Ferry. At the time, there was a single island platform with one exit at Battery Park and another in Bowling Green. When the Lexington Avenue Line was expanded to Brooklyn in 1908, some trains continued going to South Ferry, resulting in the creation of a short island platform at the Bowling Green station for the Bowling Green–South Ferry shuttle. The shuttle operated until 1977. During the 1970s, the station was completely renovated, a new exit was built, and a third, side platform was created for northbound trains. The Bowling Green station contains three platforms: two island platforms and one side platform. The westernmost island platform, used by the shuttle, has not been in use since 1977. The station retains its original head house in Battery Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a New York City designated landmark. There are two other exits to Bowling Green, one of which contains an elevator that makes the station compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Bowling Green is a small public park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, at the southern end of Broadway. Located next to the site of the original Dutch fort of New Amsterdam, it served as a public place before being designated as a park in 1733. It is the oldest public park in New York City and is surrounded by its original 18th-century fence. It included an actual bowling green and an equestrian statue of King George III prior to the American Revolutionary War. Bowling Green is surrounded by numerous buildings, including the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, International Mercantile Marine Company Building, Bowling Green Offices Building, Cunard Building, 26 Broadway, and 2 Broadway. The Charging Bull sculpture is located on its northern end, while Battery Park is located to the southwest. The park is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places under the name Bowling Green Fence and Park. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, an NRHP district created in 2007.

Bridge Street is a street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City, running two blocks from State Street in the west to Broad Street in the east. It intersects Whitehall Street.

Williams-Whittlesey Motor Boat and Shipbuilding Co., often referred to as Williams-Whittlesey Co. and known until 1904 as the Standard Boat Co., was an American boatbuilding company in Queens, New York, that operated at least from 1891 to 1910. Headquartered in Long Island City with a boatyard in the adjacent Astoria neighborhood, the company produced tugboats, river vessels, scows, and yachts. Among its products were two private motorboats that were later commissioned by the United States Navy for service during World War I: Osprey II, which served as USS Osprey II (SP-928) from 1917 to 1918; and Althea, which served as USS Althea (SP-218) from 1917 to 1919. In 1904, the Standard Boat Co.'s owners changed the name to Williams-Whittlesey Motor Boat and Shipbuilding Co. because they "felt that their firm was very often confused with the Standard Motor Construction Co. of Jersey City, New Jersey".Among its naval architects was H. Newton Whittelsey, whose yacht designs were noted for introducing "the modern type of large raised deck cruiser," according to Motor Boating magazine. Another employee was Daniel I. Whittlesey, a 1901 graduate of Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School. By 1916, Whittelsey and Whittlesey had formed their own shipbuilding company headquartered at 11 Broadway in Manhattan.