On Thursday 24 October 1929, Wall Street – a narrow thoroughfare at the southern tip of Manhattan Island – was unusually busy. Extremely busy. The street's most significant building, the New York Stock Exchange, didn't open for business until 10am, but vast crowds were gathering.
This didn't mean good news. It was neither a homecoming nor a victory parade. Instead, the atmosphere was thick with concern, with fear, with panic. In the last hour of trading the previous afternoon, the financial market had plummeted, with 2.6 million shares being sold in a chaotic last flurry of business. Flurry is perhaps too gentle an adjective. It was a hurricane.
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