Big Apple History . Business and Politics . The Crash


	The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

No one saw it coming. Although the stock market had a few setbacks in 1929, most people felt that the overall growth would continue for years. On October 22, a NEW YORK TIMES article quoted a noted economics professor who predicted that the market would soon return to "steady increases."

On October 24, stock prices began to fall and brokers began to sell. By noon, millions of shares had been sold. The selling frenzy continued all afternoon. By closing, 13 million shares had been traded and the market dropped four billion dollars. People who had invested their entire life savings during the boom were now bankrupt. Many banks and businesses were forced to close. But the worst was yet to come.

On October 29, later nicknamed "Black Tuesday," the stock market crashed. On that day, over 16 million shares of stock were sold and the market fell over 14 billion dollars. By comparison, the entire budget of the U.S. Government that year was three billion dollars. Brokers screamed as hysterical visitors were taken away by the police. In one day, the United States lost more capital than it had spent in all of World War I.

Illustration: Courtesy of the Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.