Federal Reserve Bank of New York: The Gold Below the Bedrock

Why is it significant?

Stand before the imposing rusticated limestone and sandstone facade of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Liberty Street.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stand before the imposing rusticated limestone and sandstone facade of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Liberty Street. Designed by York and Sawyer in nineteen twenty-four, its fortress-like barred windows and heavy iron lanterns were modeled directly after Renaissance palaces of Florence like the Palazzo Strozzi, projecting sheer, impenetrable security.

What lies buried deep beneath the pavement under your shoes? Eighty feet below street level, carved directly into the solid Manhattan schist bedrock and resting fifty feet below sea level, lies the world's largest known depository of monetary gold bullion. The vault holds roughly five hundred thousand gold bars weighing over six thousand tons, representing billions of dollars in sovereign reserves for dozens of foreign governments and central banks.

The vault's security is legendary. There is no door with hinges: the only entrance is a ninety-ton revolving steel cylinder set inside a one-hundred-and-forty-ton steel frame that creates an airtight and watertight seal when rotated. Three separate time locks must unlock before the cylinder can even budge, and armed marksmen monitor surveillance corridors around the clock.

When one foreign country pays a debt to another, gold never travels through the streets of New York: armed guards wearing heavy magnesium shoe covers simply use manual trolleys to carry gold bars from one wire cage to another inside the vault, shifting global power six feet at a time.