Downtown Manhattan is where the so-called Wall Street area has become the financial capital of the world. The twin towers of the World Trade Center, the buildings of the World Financial Center, and the waterside park at Battery Park City, with the new Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, are at its western edge and to the south is Battery Park itself, where boats are waiting to to take you to the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum or out to Staten Island. The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Historic Trinity Church is a few steps up Broadway and around the corner is the New York Stock Exchange. 

Nearby is Federal Hall Memorial on the spot where George Washington took his oath as America's first president. Among the skyscraper headquarters of some of the country's biggest banks is the Federal Reserve Bank where tons of gold are stored. A bit of old New York is represented at the South Street Seaport where you can sit in the shadow of tall sailing ships and the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge and shop at its urban mall.