Broad Street was originally a canal, and for a brief part of its usage it was wide enough to actually use as a passageway, but it became used for trash from the citizens and became so clogged up that it was no longer able to be used. The British in 1674 made modifications to this problem by filling in the street and paving over it, covering all the garbage that lied within it. Today it lies within the Financial District of New York and contains mostly banks and the well known New York Stock Exchange.