Fearless Girl Commands New Spot, Faces Down New York Stock Exchange

Manhattan’s beloved Fearless Girl statue has taken up a new vantage point to stare down the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

The 4-foot-tall bronze statue girl with her hands on her hips previously stood at the end of Bowling Green, New York City’s oldest park, facing the charging Wall Street bull, an iconic installation fashioned in bronze by Italian sculptor Arturo Di Modica.

“Now, instead of staring down the bull, she’s going to be staring down all of business,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said at a ceremony marking the statue’s new home.

Fearless Girl popped up on her original site in March 2017 on the eve of International Woman’s Day. The Boston-based financial firm State Street Global Advisors installed the statue as part of a company-boosting campaign to support more women on corporate boards.

The statue was only supposed to remain for a few days. But New Yorkers and tourists were so thrilled by her that the city extended the permit to stay.

However, the popularity of Fearless Girl created safety concerns on the street, noted CNN. The site was also not wheelchair-accessible. So city officials decided it had to move. A plaque with two smallish footprints was installed where the statue used to stand.

“We are welcoming her with open arms,” Betty Liu, executive vice chairwoman of the NYSE, told The New York Times after an appreciative crowd applauded the plucky girl at her new home.