Ellis Island

After thoroughly exploring the Statue of Liberty, we grabbed a bite of lunch from the cafe there which had a great selection of fast food and was surprisingly good. Then we got on the next ferry bound for Ellis Island. It was a quick 10 minute ride. Although there are several buildings on the island, the only one open was the main processing building.

View of registry room from second level

The Immigration Service opened Ellis Island for business January 1, 1892 and during the next 25-30 years some 12 million people passed through here on their way to a new homeland. Some days 5,000 people may have walked through the front door. April 17, 1907 saw almost 12,000 folks disembark. Remarkable!! After 1924 immigration laws changed and a different agency took over the immigration process, greatly reducing the number of souls passing this way. In 1954 Ellis Island closed all together and in 1965 it became part of the National Park Service system. Today, thousands of folks walk through the front door each day, not searching for a new homeland, but exploring the great land they call home or searching for ancestors who passed this way.

Dorm Room

Luggage Line

Train schedules displayed at Ellis Island

Not all immigrates passed through Ellis Island. Anyone in first and second class who did not appear ill were sent through customs and right into New York. If you were unfortunate enough not to look in good health, to Ellis Island you went along with all passengers in steerage and third class for “further inspection”. In the Registry Room hopeful immigrants stood in long lines to be processed. Inspectors would walk along the lines and make chalk marks on clothing to alert doctors or other inspectors of possible ailments. At the end of the line, immigrants were sent on to New York or to other rooms for further inspection. Most exited the process and made their way within a few hours to New York. I cannot imagine how frightful, humiliating, and frustrating this process must have seemed. We would not tolerate it today. It would fall into the category of discriminatory and probably inhumane. But for those millions of people, this was America, the land of the free, the land of opportunity and nothing done to them here could begin to compare with the suffering associated with their old homeland.

Registry Room

Sinks in the Dorm room

We opted for the audio tour and listened to the narrative explaining each site on the tour. The Park Service recommends 3.5 hours for this tour. It would definitely take that much time. We finally left on the 4:30 ferry almost too exhausted to stand without seeing everything there was to see. It was sobering and sorrowful to finally understand the process so many endured to enter the United States. As I stood in line waiting for the ferry to take me back to Manhattan, I looked around at the hundreds waiting in line with me. Some were definitely old enough to have come here as an infant or small child. Perhaps they had come for another reason—to remember the past.

Wall of names

Enjoy the photos. They are not very good because so many were taken inside without proper lighting, but hopefully you will get the idea. The building has been restored to its 1918 French Renaissance-style glory.

Manhatten Skyline