Bicycletour Breukelen-Brooklyn 375 years

Introduction

Enjoy a beautiful bike ride along buildings and places that have a connection with 17th-century America, where the Dutch settled as the first settlers. The route takes you through the village of Breukelen and along the river Vecht to Nieuwersluis and Maarssen, passing summer estates of directors of the East and West Indian tradingcompany, the Dutch Brooklyn Bridge and other monuments that are in some way connected to the 375-year-old links between Breukelen, Stichtse Vecht and Brooklyn, New York.

History:

In 1609, explorer Hendry Hudson reached eastern North America in search of an alternative route to Asia for the ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He gave the area adjacent to the river he was leading up - the later Hudson River - the name 'New Netherland'. It belonged originally to the indigenous Americans, the Lenni Lenape, who had different ideas about ownership of the land than the Dutch. After the foundation of the West India Company (WIC) in 1621, the Dutch were encouraged to establish trading and agricultural settlements here. They named these after the villages in their motherland. Capital of the Dutch colony became New Amsterdam. Present day Brooklyn was formed by the towns of Breuckelen, Nieuw Amersfoort (Flatland), Midwout (Flatbush), Boswijck (Bushwick) and Nieuw Utrecht (New Utrecht). These settlements were agricultural producers to feed the people of New Amsterdam. Enslaved Africans, brought to America by the West Indian Company, labored as farmworkers. From this region goods were transported by the WIC sailingships to the Republic of the United Netherlands, especially beaver pelts. These were processed into felt for the hat industry and used for fur coats. But also trees and shrubs were transported overseas and developed very successfully here. With the wealth that Amsterdam merchants earned through their involvement with the East and West Indian Company, they built their beautiful canal houses in Amsterdam and country estates around the city to spend the summers in. Many of them were located along the Vecht.

There were also relationships 'the other way round'. The origin of the Netherlands is present everywhere in East America in houses, dishes, family names, street names and patterns and words. Other important 'legacy' of the Dutch were free trade and religious tolerance, important elements in the development of present-day New York.

On May 21, 1646, the residents of the Dutch settlement of Breuckelen elected their first aldermen: Jan Evertsen Bout and Huyck Aartsen. This date is seen as the starting point for the emergence of the later Brooklyn. Now, 375 years later, this moment will be commemorated in 2021-2022 with, among other things, the exhibition in the RHC Vecht and Venen 'With a suitcase full to Brooklyn', a mini documentary and this bicycle tour.

More information and inspiration:
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