1660: Brooklyn Ferry sign

[tedbarnett]

We need a sign post near the harbor area that indicates the "Ferry to Brooklyn". In Dutch spelling of the time, it would read as follows:

"Veer naar Breuckelen"

ChatGPT In 1660 New Amsterdam, the area known to us as Brooklyn was referred to as Breuckelen, named after a town in the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands. The name evolved from Breuckelen, to Brockland, to Brocklin, to Brookline, and eventually, Brooklyn​​. The ferry service in New York Harbor, which began as early as 1642, connected Breuckelen and New Amsterdam. This service was established by Cornelius Dircksen, who was the earliest recorded ferryman. However, there are no specific records detailing the exact spelling of the sign by the dock​​.

To reconstruct what the sign might have said, we would have to consider the Dutch language and the spellings of the time. The Dutch word for ferry is "veer" or "pont", and given the historical name of Brooklyn, the sign might have said something akin to "Veer naar Breuckelen". The actual historical spelling would depend on the orthographic conventions of the 17th-century Dutch language, which might differ slightly from modern Dutch.

[tedbarnett]

Ideally find an appropriate font too!