Free previewStop 2 of Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan Walking Tour
The Pole the Soldiers Kept Chopping Down
You're standing in City Hall Park, with the white facade of City Hall in front of you. Look for a tall mast between City Hall and Broadway, with a vane on top. That's a replica of a Liberty pole, dated 1921, standing near where the original stood. The original wasn't raised once. It was raised again and again, because soldiers kept cutting it down.
This ground was the town commons then. In 1765 New Yorkers gathered here, angry about the Stamp Act. When Parliament repealed it in March 1766, the crowd celebrated on the same ground.
That same year the Sons of Liberty raised a tall mast on the commons. They put it just outside the Soldiers' Barracks. That was not an accident. A pole is a modest thing to argue with, but this one stood where the soldiers had to look at it every day.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 2 of Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan Walking Tour (2 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
