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Visiting the Federal Reserve Bank
33 Liberty St.
The New York "Fed," as it is somewhat affectionately known, occupies an entire city block. It's meant to look imposing. Indeed, it's the most heavily fortified building in the city. But behind this gruff exterior lies a surprisingly soft heart. Through its gold-vault tour, its "History of Money" exhibit and its delightful publications (including hilarious comic books), the Fed makes the world financial system seem not only logical, but surprisingly interesting.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York was completed in 1924 and expanded in 1935. Distinguished by massive rusticated walls of Indiana limestone and Ohio sandstone, it influenced bank architecture around the country. Architect Phillip Sawyer based his design on that of several 15C Italian Renaissance palazzos that were built to house the wealthiest banking and merchant families in Florence.
Visit
The New York Fed ceded its cash-collecting and cash-disbursing functions in 1992 to a New Jersey facility, largely because the Brinks trucks were constantly getting snarled in traffic. But there's still plenty of riches here. Inside the building, 80ft below street level (50ft below sea level), lies the Federal Reserve's gold vault. The vault was actually excavated in 1921 and the building built on top of it. Today it contains about $90 billion worth of gold bullion, most belonging to foreign governments (most of the gold belonging to the US is stored in Kentucky's Fort Knox). As visitors gaze at a sparkling wall of gold bars —some rectangular, some trapezoidal, all utterly fake-looking—a tour guide details the astounding security measures taken to protect them: hidden cameras, motion detectors, combination and time locks, a revolving 90-ton "door" that lowers three-eighths of an inch into the concrete floor, forming an airtight and watertight seal. Finally, among the New York Fed's 2,900 employees are several dozen expert marksmen, who regularly hone their skills on the second-floor shooting range.
Visitors who did not reserve a space on the tour can view the excellent "Drachmas, Doubloons and Dollars: The History of Money" exhibit*, co-curated by the American Numismatic Society. Here, hundreds of artifacts illustrate the many forms money can take—coins, cowrie shells, salt, tokens, gold, paper money and credit cards, for example. Take special note of the 1933 gold "double eagle," designed by Auguste Saint-Gaudens. On anonymous loan until 2007, the $20 coin was purchased at auction for $7.6 million in 2002 after a shady round-the-world journey. Declaring possession of the coin, which had never been officially circulated, illegal, the US government seized the proceeds. But the seller, an English coin dealer, sued. In an unprecedented ruling, a federal judge ordered the government to return half the money, in effect legalizing the transaction.
Coin exhibit open year-round
Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, except on bank holidays.
Gold vault may be viewed by free guided tour (45min) only, Mon-Fri 9:30am, 10:30am, 11:30am, 1:30pm & 2pm. 0t One-month advance reservations required.
212-720-6130
email: frbnytours@ny.frb.org www.ny.frb.org.
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