FINANCIAL DISTRICT — This cemetery is no dead zone.
Trinity Churchyard, at 74 Trinity Place, where Alexander Hamilton and many other early New Yorkers were buried more than two centuries ago, just became the city's latest Wi-Fi hot spot, the Downtown Alliance announced Wednesday.
The Alliance installs the hot spots in public spaces to serve the area's growing population of residents, workers and tourists — and it would be hard to find a location more central than Trinity Churchyard, which sits between the World Trade Center and Wall Street.
A quiet green space with weathered gravestones, the churchyard is open to the public daily, and Trinity encourages people to explore the history or just sit on a bench in the shade and eat their lunch. Now, those visitors will be able to bring a laptop and go online.
In addition to Hamilton, who died in 1804, Trinity Churchyard also serves as the final resting place for naval inventor Robert Fulton, who died in 1815, and businessman John Jacob Astor, who died in 1848.
Also on Wednesday, the Downtown Alliance announced two other new Wi-Fi hot spots, at the recently renovated Louise Nevelson Plaza at Liberty and William streets and at The Plaza at 59 Maiden Lane, at the corner of William Street.
"The Downtown Alliance is excited to make Lower Manhattan the best place for free, accessible Wi-Fi in the city," Downtown Alliance President Liz Berger said.
The Downtown Alliance's hot spots now cover a total of 715,000 square feet, an area about the size of 17 football fields, the group said.
In 2011, the free wireless network handled more than 230,000 connections.
