Thousands of anti-corporate protesters marched Saturday from New York City's Financial District to Times Square in a show of force that resulted in 74 arrests, authorities said.

Holding signs reading "debt is slavery," "in a gentle way you can change the world," and "We are not anonymous," the protesters stopped traffic in busy Midtown Manhattan streets and provided a new spectacle for tourists and New Yorkers amid the bustle of iconic Times Square. It was one of the largest demonstrations yet from the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has camped out in a Lower Manhattan park since Sept. 17 to protest finance industry bailouts, unemployment and income inequality.

The arrests marred what police said was a largely orderly march to the heart of Midtown Manhattan from the protest's headquarters in the Financial District's Zuccotti Park. The march came a day after the privately owned park's landlord backed down from an attempt to temporarily move the demonstration.

The protesters in Times Square came from around the country and many were not part of the park encampment.

"It's a very impassioned important movement. The country is being taken over by corporations," said Paul Kaiser, 68 years old, of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., a psychoanalyst who came with his wife, Wendy, to support a daughter who has had trouble finding work.