OLD-TIME  FERRY  BOATS  TO  BROOKLYN

Quaint and Curious Customs Before the Days
of  Bridges  and  Tunnels

By James Blalne Walker
Sec'y Public Service Commission

The ferry to Long Island was the first municipally-
owned ferry in New York. It was established prior to
1664, the year in which the Dutch rule ended, for the first
English Governor confirmed to the city government the
right to maintain such a ferry as had already existed un-
der Dutch rule.

Both Dutch and English, however, were content with
municipal ownership of the ferries and only attempted
municipal operation when a proper tenant or lessee could
not be found to operate them, and such occasions were
rare, even in the early days before increasing travel made
them very valuable as a business enterprise. Their value
to the city, however, was always keenly appreciated, so
much so that the English rulers of the municipal govern-
ment frecj[uentlv mortgaged the receipts of the ferry to
raise money. Some of these purposes, considered legiti-
mate and proper two hundred years ago, provoke smiles
now from the American unused to the customs of royal
subjects. For instance, in 1693 the "mayor, aldermen
and commonalty" of New York felt it incumbent on them
to give a loving cup to the new Governor, but the municipal
treasury was empty and the cup cost "106 pounds."

But the Mayor of New York knew how to "raise the
wind" and at once bethought himself of the one and only
revenue producer, the Long Island ferry.    It had been

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