40 Wall Street the height of his project and then publicly claimed the title of the world's tallest building. (This distinction excluded structures that were not fully habitable, such as the Eiffel Tower.) Construction of 40 Wall Street began in May 1929 at a frantic pace, and it was completed twelve months later. In response, the Chrysler's architect William Van Alen obtained permission for a long spire and had it secretly constructed inside the frame of the building. The spire was delivered to the site in four different sections. On October 23, 1929, the day before the catastrophic Wall Street Crash of 1929
Wall Street U.S. gold market in 1869) as well as modern figures such as Bernard Madoff who "bilked billions from investors". In addition, images of Wall Street and its figures have loomed large. The 1987 Oliver Stone film "Wall Street" created the iconic figure of Gordon Gekko who used the phrase "greed is good", which caught on in the cultural parlance. Stone commented in 2009 how the movie had had an unexpected cultural influence, not causing them to turn away from corporate greed, but causing many young people to choose Wall Street careers because of that movie. A reporter repeated other lines