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Federal
Reserve Bank
33 Liberty Street
Manhattan
(212) 720-6130 Tours:
Monday through Friday (except bank
holidays) at 9:30 10:30 AM, 11:30 AM,
1:30 PM, and 2:30 PM. Tours last
approximately 60 minutes.
Admission: Free
click for full-size (39K)
Summary: Free tours on
weekdays provide a glimpse at the world's
largest gold repository (yes, more than
Fort Knox!). We recommend that
reservations for the tour be made at
least two weeks in advance.
The Federal Reserve Bank of
New York is one of twelve regional
Reserve Banks in the Federal Reserve
System. Its claim to fame is the enormous
gold reserves which lie five floors (80
feet) beneath the city streets. The bank
began receiving its gold during the World
Wars when foreign countries wanted their
gold reserves safely away from European
turmoil.
Interestingly, only two
percent of the 9,000 tons of gold the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York stores
belongs to the United States. There are
63 account holders here, 49 of which are
countries; the rest belong to
international organizations. The amount
of gold used to be larger. In 1978, the
bank held one million bars of gold;
today, it stores about 700,000. Still,
this amounts to an impressive cache worth
approximately $116 billion.
The Tour
Security is tight, and you
will be asked to endure the kinds of
security measures you would expect at an
airport before you begin the tour. When
you arrive, you must go through a metal
detector, place your bags through an
x-ray machine, surrender any recording
devices, such as tape recorders and
cameras, and store your belongings in a
locked closet. To ensure that you don't
miss the tour as you wait in line for the
security check, arrive at least 20
minutes early.
Once you arrive on the same
floor as the vault, you will get a brief
history of the bank, the Federal Reserve
System, and gold in general. There is a
small display called "From Earth to
Earth" that explains the gold mining
and purification process.
Next stop: gold. There are
122 compartments of gold bars which take
up space equivalent to half a football
field. Though we were only able to see a
small portion of the gold, we got a
surprisingly good view. Tour guides will
point out the scale which can weigh up to
700 pounds of gold, yet is sensitive
enough to measure within 1/100th of an
ounce. You will also get to see the
magnesium shoes that transporters of the
gold wear to protect their feet should
any bars fall.
Security
Tour guides also take pride in displaying
the measures taken to protect the
precious metal. Although the bars and
cages that separate you from the gold
while you are in the vault are not
terribly impressive, the vault door
certainly is. It is a 90 ton,
manually-turned disc with the passage way
through its middle. When the security
guard turns it, the passage way turns
too, and the vault is completely blocked
off.
The building is a vault in
itself. One reason it has been chosen as
the storage facility for so much gold is
because the lower section of the building
sits in the granite bedrock that makes up
the foundation of Manhattan. The gold is
kept 30 feet below the subway system. As
one of our tour guides told us, if anyone
were trying to break in from a subway
tunnel, it would take him a very long
time, and security would hear him coming
long before he broke through (The movie Die
Hard III, in which terrorists rob
this bank, came up in conversation more
than a few times.)
But these are just the main
security measures, and your tour guide
will tell you about the more subtle ones.
Keep Your
Expectations Low
After you see the gold,
there is a question and answer period.
Then your day at the bank is over.
Frankly, we were a bit
disappointed. On our ticket, we were told
that we would get a "better
understanding of our nation's financial
system." In the brochure, it says
that "tour guides will point out
some of the most beautiful wrought
ironwork as well as other features of the
distinctive Italian Renaissance-style
building." Neither happened. Thus,
we advise that if you choose to come
here, don't expect too much. You will
learn a few interesting facts, and it's a
kick to see the gold, but besides that,
there simply isn't much to see.
Reservations
Reservations may be made by
calling (212) 720-6130, writing Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, Public
Information Division, 33 Liberty Street,
New York, NY 10045, or e-mailing FRBNYTOURS@ny.frb.org.
Calling is advisable since availability
can be determined immediately. The bank
suggests you call at least a month in
advance for tickets -- we suggest at
least two weeks. Larger groups should
schedule much sooner since there is a
limit of 30 people on each tour. If you
write for tickets, indicate how many
people will be on the tour, the preferred
date and time, and alternative dates.
To Get There
You can take any number of
subway routes to get there. Take the N or
R to Cortlandt Street; the 2, 3, 4, 5, J,
M, or Z to Fulton Street; or the A or C
to Broadway-Nassau. Your walk depends on
which one of the many subway stations you
exit, but your ticket, which you will
have with you, has a good map of the area
and you will have no trouble finding the
bank.
by Andrew Roche
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