New York Songlines: Pine Street

Trinity Churchyard A burial ground dating back to 1681, before Trinity Church was built, this cemetery was decreed off limits to blacks when the church took it over, resulting in the creation of the African Burial Ground. Among the most noted residents on the north side of the church are Declaration of Independence signer Francis Lewis, Treasury Secretary and NYU founder Albert Gallatin, steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton, William Bradford, publisher of New York's first newspaper (whose headstone has a typo), and seduction victim Charlotte Stanley, who inspired a wildly popular novel. (Her grave bears the name of her fictional counterpart, Charlotte Temple.) Here is also the Martyr's Monument, dedicated to the patriots who died in British prisons during the Revolution. ''It is stated that this was erected by Trinity Corporation to prevent the city from cutting Pine Street through the graveyard, there being some law on the State's statute books to prevent the removal or injury of any public monument for purposes of highway improvement.'' -- A Historical Tour of...Broadway

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South: Corner (108 Broadway): The Manhattan Life Insurance Co. was founded at this address in 1850. Corner (100 Broadway): The 1895 American Surety Building later housed the Bank of Tokyo's U.S. headquarters. This was the first New York City building with ''a complete steel frame supporting both the interior and the exterior masonry,'' and one of the first large buildings to be supported by cassions. Dean and Deluca has a cafe here, and there's a Borders bookstore. Corner (16 Wall Street): The Banker's Trust Company Building, completed in 1912, has a stepped-pyramid roof that served as the bank's logo. At this corner was Simmon's Tavern, where New York's first mayor, James Duane, was sworn in on February 7, 1784, after being appointed by Gov. De Witt Clinton.

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North: Corner (110 Broadway): At this defunct address was the Tremont Temperance House, a hotel. Block (120 Broadway): The Equitable Building, built in 1915 to replace an earlier Equitable Life headquarters that had burned down, managed to fit 1,200,000 feet of floor space on a one-acre lot--a density so great that zoning laws were changed in 1916 to require setbacks. During World War I, master spy Sidney Reilly--an inspiration for James Bond--had an office here, from which he sold arms to both Germany and Czarist Russia. The old Equitable Building, erected in 1870, had the U.S. Weather Bureau's station on its roof.

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South: Federal Hall Block (28 Wall Street): The site of New York's second city hall, built in 1703. Probably the most historic location in New York City, and one of the most important in the U.S., this was where George Washington was sworn in as our first president on April 30, 1789, an event marked with an 1883 statue of Washington by John Quincy Adams Ward. This was also where the Bill of Rights was adopted on September 25, 1789; where the Continental Congress approved the Northwest Ordinance in 1787; where the Stamp Act Congress met to protest ''taxation without representation'' in 1765; and where the trial of New York Weekly Journal editor John Peter Zenger established the principle that the truth cannot be libelous. The building had been remodeled by Pierre L'Enfant in 1788, but the national capital was moved to Philadelphia in 1790, and the historic structure was demolished in 1812. The current building was built in 1842 as the U.S. Customs House, and became the U.S. Sub-Treasury in 1862, storing the gold and silver that moved in 1920 to the Federal Reserve Bank. 40 Wall Street Formerly the Manhattan Bank Building, this was designed to be the tallest building in the world, but was beaten out by the Chrysler Building's surprise spire. On May 20, 1946 it was struck by an Air Force plane, killing all five crew members but causing no fatalities inside. The Bank of the Manhattan Company, which eventually became Chase Manhattan, opened its first office here in September 1799. It was founded by Aaron Burr against the opposition of Alexander Hamilton. The New York Stock & Exchange Board, as the NYSE was then called, had its first permanent office here in 1817. The United States Life Insurance Co. moved its operations here in 1852. Donald Trump calls this the Trump Building; please don't encourage him. Corner (44 Wall): A 24-story 1927 building by Trowbridge & Livingston houses the offices of Metro, the daily free newspaper owned by racist jerks from Sweden. Formerly on the corner was 45 Pine Street, which in 1798 was the home of Charles Brockden Brown, "the first American novelist to gain an international reputation" (All Around the Town). After surviving yellow fever here during the epidemic of 1798, he wrote four novels in the next 18 months.

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North: Chase Manhattan Plaza Built in 1961 as headquarters for the Rockefellers' Chase Manhattan Bank, this 60-story, 813-foot aluminum and glass tower by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has 2.4 million square feet of office space, above and below ground. The project spans two city blocks, creating a gap in Cedar Street. The plaza features Jean Dubuffet's Four Trees and Isamu Noguchi's Sunken Garden. This was the site of the Middle Dutch Church, established in 1727, and used by the British during the Revolution as a prison and riding school. On April 29, 1839, the 50th anniversary of Washington's inauguration was celebrated here, presided over by former President John Quincy Adams. In 1845, the building became a post office, which on July 1, 1847 issued the first U.S. stamps.

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South: 47 (corner): Club Quarters Downtown Hotel is in a 1903 building that served as the offices of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., an investment bank that merged with Lehman Brothers in 1977; Otto Hermann Kahn, a partner in the firm, died here in 1934. Another partner was William George Eden Wiseman, head of Britain's spy operations in America during World War I. 60 Wall Street This 1988 building by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo has 52 stories and 1.7 million square feet of space. Designed to be a modernist interpretation of the Greek revival forms of No. 55 across the street. It replaced a 26-story building by Clinton & Russell that went up in 1905. Originally the Morgan Bank Headquarters, it's now the U.S. offices of Deutsche Bank, which the band Kraftwerk puts in the same category with the FBI, Interpol and Scotland Yard. 73 (corner): Also known as 72 Wall Street.

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North: Corner (56 William): The Crowne Plaza William Street Hotel is in a 41-story building from 1947, designed by Stephen B. Jacobs Group. 56-58: Built in 1894 as the Wallace Building, designed by Oswald Wirz in a Romanesque Revival style. 60: The Down Town Association is a lunchtime clubhouse for financial execs, opened in 1887 with a Charles Haight design and expanded in 1911 by Warren & Wetmore. Its members have included Franklin Roosevelt, Wendell Wilkie, Thomas Dewey and OSS chief Wild Bill Donovan. American International Building 70 (block): This 66-story Art Deco tower is the world headquarters of the American International insurance group. Built in 1932, it was the last skyscraper to be built in the Financial District until 1961, and the tallest one until the first World Trade Center tower was built in 1972. After September 11, it was for a while again the tallest building downtown. Designed by Holton & George and Clinton & Russell.

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North: Wall Street Plaza 88 (block): The AIA Guide calls this 1973 I.M. Pei building "a white, crisp elegance of aluminum and glass."

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South: Eurostars Wall Street 91 (corner): Formerly the Exchange Hotel, before that the Manhattan Seaport Suites. An eight-story building from 1961. Corner (120 Wall): A 1930 building by Eli Jacques Kahn's firm. The Urban League has its offices here, as did WBAI, New York's listener-supported progressive radio station, until 2013. This was also the building owned by the title character in How to Marry a Millionaire.

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North: Continental Center 98 (block): A 41-story green-glass octagonal skyscraper, built in 1982 by the Rockefeller Group for Continental Insurance, to a design by Swanke Hayden Connell Architects. The AIA Guide calls it a "tacky green monster." Later occupants have included Goldman Sachs and AIG.

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East River Greenway A path for bikes and pedestrians that runs along the waterfront from The Battery to 34th Street. Pier 14

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What am I missing on Pine Street? Write to Jim Naureckas and tell him about it. New York Songlines Home. Sources for the Songlines.