Wall Street Shocked Into Exodus

The foolishness of locating much of the world's financial infrastructure on the tip of Lower Manhattan was obvious to many long before Sept. 11. What the attacks managed to do was extinguish many of the romantic notions that had kept firms devoted to Wall Street, replacing them with an uncharacteristic fear.

It's become commonplace to point out that, as far as property is concerned, Osama bin Laden's planes merely accelerated a demographic trend that had been in place in Lower Manhattan for several decades. Worried about the threat centralization posed to their systems and documents, and tired of the area's high rents, securities firms have been leaving downtown New York for years.

The pace had picked up in the summer before the attacks as a recession and bear market took hold. In one of many examples, J.P. Morgan Chase(JPM Quote) relocated 4,000 employees from Wall Street to New Jersey in June 2000. Sept. 11 simply threw the door wide open. ...