National Debt Clock

Before the necessary technology existed, Seymour Durst conceived of the National Debt Clock to call attention to the soaring debt and each family’s share of it. Durst installed the original clock, which used 306 individual light bulbs, at the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street on February 20, 1989, when the national debt was nearing $3 trillion.

The clock was switched off in 2000, when the prosperity of the 1990s resulted in the national debt slowly decreasing. That didn’t last, and the clock was reactivated in July 2002. In 2004, a new clock was installed on West 44th Street and Avenue of the Americas, replacing the original. When the debt exceeded $10 trillion in September 2008, one more digit was added.

In 2018, the National Debt Clock was relocated to Anita’s Way, located in the through block between One Bryant Park and 151 W 42nd Street.