This Charming Dutch Town Is Where Brooklyn Gets Its Name
To us New Yorkers Brooklyn is a place filled with delicious food, iconic sights, and unique neighborhoods to explore (see: Greenpoint, DUMBO, Bushwick, and Williamsburg) but to the Dutch Breukelen is a small, charming town home to nature, large mansions, and a castle nestled on the banks of the winding Vecht River.
Yes, NYC isn’t the only place that’s home to a Brooklyn, there’s also a Breukelen in the Netherlands! And though the spelling is a bit different–and they’re 3,649 miles apart–it’s actually where the stateside counterpart gets its name.
To find out the full story we have to travel back in time to the 17th century, specifically 1636, which is about twelve years after Dutch settlers began to establish the community of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island’s southern tip, according to New Netherland Institute.
During this time a handful of pioneers among the Dutch settlers spread across the East River, setting up plantations on the western-most edge of Long Island. In 1646, the island’s first Dutch community was established with the name Breuckelen, the anglicized form of the town Breukelen in the Netherlands.
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The first mention of Breuckelen in the records of the colony of New Netherland is a contract that dates back to 1646. The contract states:
Gerrit Douman, sergeant, and Jan Tonissen, schout of Breuckelen, have this day agreed and contracted in manner as follows, to wit: Jan Tonissen promises to cut at Breuckelen, or wherever he can best do so, the following timber and to properly hew and deliver the same out of the woods near the ferryman on the strand…
The village of Breuckelen is not synonymous with the borough of Brooklyn we’ve come to know today, but rather was one of six towns settled under Dutch rule within the area of the borough (the others including Amersfoort, New Utrecht, Boswyck, Midwout, and Gravesend).
Back in the day Breuckelen was located directly across the East River from New Amsterdam, on the southern tip of Manhattan near what is now the present-day Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO.
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Today, visitors to the Netherlands’ Breukelen will be wrapped in Dutch Golden Age elegance and find themselves strolling past lavish homesteads, stunning sights, and even a castle with an impressive arch, waterway, and even a drawbridge!
P.S. Brooklyn isn’t the only place with a Netherlands counterpart–just a 30 minute drive west from Amsterdam you’ll find Haarlem, the capital of North Holland!
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