Unspecified/General

A 7,100-pound bronze bull, head lowered and muscles tensed as if about to charge, stands on a traffic island on Broadway just north of Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan, where it has become one of the city's most photographed sculptures. Eleven feet tall and sixteen feet long, the work known as Charging Bull is meant to embody aggressive financial optimism, and crowds line up daily to pose with it near the heart of the financial district. Its origin is unusual: the bull was never commissioned. The Sicilian-born artist Arturo Di Modica created it at his own expense, reportedly some 300,000 dollars, after the stock market crash of 1987, intending it as a symbol of the resilience of the American people. In an act of guerrilla art, he and a crew trucked it into the financial district one December night in 1989 and left it beneath the Christmas tree in front of the New York Stock Exchange as an unsolicited gift to the city. The authorities were not amused. The Exchange had the sculpture impounded within hours, but the ensuing public outcry pushed the city's parks department to reinstall it days later at Bowling Green, a few blocks south, where it was meant to stand only temporarily. It has remained there ever since, facing up Broadway, and over the decades it has drawn protests, vandalism and periodic debates about whether it should move. For visitors the bull is free to see at any hour, though daytime brings dense queues for photographs, with a particular tradition of rubbing its nose and horns for luck that has polished those spots to a bright shine. Since 2017 it has often been discussed alongside the nearby Fearless Girl statue, which once stood facing it. It sits steps from Bowling Green, the oldest public park in the city, and within easy reach of the waterfront and the ferries to the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor long maintained that the work was always for sale and was never intended as a permanent city fixture, and disputes over its commercial use and location surfaced repeatedly until his death in 2021. City officials have at times floated moving it to a more secure spot near the Stock Exchange, citing crowds and safety, without acting on the idea. For now it remains a fixed point on the tourist circuit, ringed from morning to night by visitors angling for the same photograph.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Broadway at Bowling Green, New York City, NY, United States

Opening Date: 20/12/1989