Give My Regards to Broad Street

O.K., that's not how the song really goes.  The real chorus is:

Give my regards to Broadway, remember me to Herald Square,

Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street, that I will soon be there;

Whisper of how I'm yearning to mingle with the old time throng;

Give my regards to old Broadway and say that I'll be there ere long.

Is there a song about Broad Street? If so, I'm not aware of it. As important as the street may be, it probably doesn't inspire the enthusiasm that Broadway does. Broad Street is in the center of Manhattan's financial district, but long ago it was the Broad Canal. Traders could bring their goods into the city via boat or canoe before it was filled in in 1676.

Here are three postcards from different eras, all taken around the intersection of Broad Street and Wall Street. The first one is an early view by the American News Company, looking up Broad Street towards Federal Hall.

If you could walk up the street and turn left at the Federal Hall onto Wall Street, you would have seen a view similar to this, with Trinity Church at the end of the street.

The third picture is from the same general area as the second, but from a number of years later and taken from a different direction.

Here are the backs of the cards in the same order.