FINANCIAL DISTRICT
6. Zuccotti Park/1 Liberty Plaza
Zuccotti Park, a square bordered by Broadway, Trinity Place, Liberty Street and Cedar Street, has been in the news thanks to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, but do you know its history? It was formerly known as Liberty Park before it was damaged during the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. After they cleaned up the debris, it became a staging area during the recovery efforts.
Originally built by U.S. Steel in 1968 in exchange for a height bonus for their new building, One Liberty Plaza, Zuccotti Park was renamed after John Zuccotti, the chairman of Brookfield Office Properties at the time the company completed renovations of the park in 2006. Double Check by John Seward Johnson is a cool sculpture of a businessman getting ready to start his day. In the initial hours of the 9/11 attacks, people rushed to the statue thinking it was a man covered in debris and needing aid.