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At least this underground sign makes more sense than the "Brodaway" tiling spotted on the G platform. The Examiner spotted this one in the Fulton Street station (on the 2/3 platform) pointing towards a train headed to Downtown Breuckelen. This isn't a typo, it's just old-timey! As they point out, "the sign refers to the original Dutch name for Brooklyn. Named after a town in The Netherlands, the Village of Breuckelen was one of the first municipalities in New York State and was founded by the Dutch West India Company in the 1640s."
Who knew the Fulton stop was the MTA equivalent to Doc Brown's DeLorean? Sadly, there's no traveling back in time, as the sign has been taken down. NYCT's Charles Seaton confirmed with us today, "This was indeed a prank and was corrected as soon as it was brought to our attention."
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I love it! A prank that's witty, timeless, and clever!!
Not to mention, subtle!
seconded!
See, things like that are cool to have around. That sign was unique to the station, now, its uniform like every other station.
Too bad.
Well whoever created this prank wasn't consistent. If he was going to make a sign for "Downtown and Breuckelen" he should've also made one for "Uptown and The Bronks."
There was a sign like this at the W. 4th Station at least as of this past weekend
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwerdna/3862409641
There's also a "Mannahatta" sign I saw pictured somewhere; wouldn't be surprised if this one is related. Sort of viral marketing:
http://themannahattaproject.org/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/databong/3838708869/
Sadly the MTA are IDIOTS!
This morning, everyone who wanted to go down 6th Ave was booted off the V train at 5th Ave. We waited through 3 E's in a row. Finally another V, and then they announce that that V too was going down 8th.
Um, thanks for the information!
You mean they actually made an announcement, instead of just leaving you there utterly clueless for 30+ minutes? This is a vast improvement of V service.
The Dutch are taking back their island one station at a time!
That is too great. I hope that sign is destined for the Transit Museum.
I still like Queeeeeens:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/squid_ink/3151623800/
There is a severe MTA budget deficit, but MTA employees still have plenty of free time for pranks?
Exactly!
And who pays for all these pranks & re-do's? Is there anyone overseeing this stuff before it leaves the place they're made at?
I am the first person to love a good prank, but with the MTA constantly talking of fare hikes and shortages, you would spell checking stuff so it doesn't need to be redone would be one of the first places they could trim the fat so to speak.
Was it the MTA doing this? Somehow I doubt it -- doesn't seem like an MTA thing to do. Rather, it seems like someone from the outside put up a sticker or switched a sign, etc. The MTA doesn't generally prank itself.
(Though one could argue that the entire MTA is one big episode of Punk'd, with all New Yorkers as its target. Sometimes that's the only explanation that makes sense.)
Please. You actually think that the average MTA employee's sense of humor (assuming he or she has one) is this high-brow? This was done (well) by someone unaffiliated with the MTA, plain and simple.
Nicely done, whoever it was.
lol @ noreaster76 for saying the fake sign couldn't have been done by an average MTA employee because the humor is too "high brow."
@Noreaster and just_saying
Those are ignorant, classist remarks. Who are you to judge? If that, albeit welcome, bit of cleverness is your idea of "high-brow," you both needed to pay more attention in class. I also doubt you're that well acquainted with the "average" MTA employee to speak that authoritatively. I reckon that it might serve you well to do so, though: I'd lay odds that most can run much more than rhymes @ your square asses and that you might learn something very, very useful, like, say, respect.
@notnyc You're barking up the wrong tree. I completely agree with you that respect is crucial, especially in this day and age, and should be one's first trait in dealing with others, but I'm not so naive that I would "lay odds" that more than 10% of MTA employees could tell you that the Dutch settled Manhattan. I'll take that bet any day. (And a result of anything less than %50 proves my point.)
I have very little respect for MTA employees who sit lazily in station agent booths reading the New York Post, separated by a thick wall of glass from tourists and elderly and others who need their help operating the MetroCard machines, when they could instead take pride in their jobs and come out from the booth and offer good, old-fashioned, friendly, personal, face-to-face assistance. I also have little respect for MTA employees and riders alike who allow stations and trains to deteriorate. And I haven't even brought up the simple fact that average MTA employees apparently are unable to make it so that announcements on trains and platforms are intelligible.
Or do I simply have the bad luck of always seeming to be dealing with the results and output of the below average ones? Based on the 3-4 times per day I ride the buses and subways, I'd "lay odds" that the answer is no.
Who pays for it? You do, of course, as a transit rider and a taxpayer.
These stickers have been popping up all over lower manhattan for "breuckelen"- and "broncks"-labeled signs. For the safety of the customers and the employees, a two-or-three person crew is dispatched to remove these stickers and clean the sign. (These are union-mandated safety regulations, of course.)
So, the person who is doing this will get his 5 minutes on sites like secondavenuesagas and gothamist, or maybe fox news if he's lucky, as the payroll charges add up, and get added to the Transit Authority's ever-bulging budget.
But it's ok, because it's "high brow", "witty", "timeless" and "clever", and not to mention, "subtle".
Whoever enjoys this "prank"...check that...."vandalism" just lost their license to complain about fare hikes and service cuts.
What is this 2-3 person crew doing otherwise? Working? ;)
well said, thanks.
Isn't this just a sticker pasted onto the actual sign?
did NOT notice that this morning at 905am. interesting.
i like this
Obviously someone loved The Brooklyn Paper's "Breukelen Paper" edition:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/sections/breukelen/32/
GERSH KUNTZMAN
Editor
The Brooklyn Paper
Yet another reason to not use Helvetica. If the MTA still used Standard Medium, Massimo Vignelli's prescribed typeface from his 1970 New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual, instead of Helvetica this sort of prank would be much harder and the signs much better looking.
i
that's me standing by the oncoming train and i didn't even notice it!
Sure it is.
Read "Last Exit To Brueckelen". It features lurid scenes of tobacco smoking and natives trading sex for seashells.
my guess is this is part of the hudson400 promotional campaign. i'm glad they're finally getting it started!!
http://www.ny400.org/
OMG!!! STREET ART!!! FUCK
there is another MTA sign on the south/west corner of 6th ave & 16th street