Diamond District

The Diamond District is a single Midtown block, 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, through which an estimated 90 percent of all diamonds entering the United States pass. After World War II, Orthodox Jewish traders from Antwerp and Amsterdam relocated here, and the street still carries their cadence of black hats, shtreimels, and Yiddish bargaining. Behind plain glass storefronts, roughly 2,600 independent businesses share 25 buildings that function as a vertical exchange. Step into any arcade and you can negotiate over an engagement ring, compare stones loose under a loupe, or simply watch one of the strangest blocks in Manhattan, where more value per square metre changes hands than on most trading floors.