The
Statue of Liberty Web SiteThe Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
The
Statue of Liberty Web Site
The participants on the ferryboat.
Ellis Island
Less than a mile north of Liberty Island is another island on which sits an extravagant structure restored in 1991. Now called the Ellis Island National Monument, it is the old US Immigration Station where hordes of European immigrants arrived at the turn of the century: there were 1,285 349 arrivals in 1907 alone, the peak year.From 1892 to 1954 12 millions immigrants went through the E.I US Immigration Station. It itself had replaced the older Immigrant Landing Station housed in Castle Clinton, at the south tip of Manhattan. The then heavily Eastern European population of immigrants felt at home when discovering the bulbous turrets of the reception structure, reminiscent of the ornately detailed public buildings left behind.
Successive waves of newcomers entering through the port of N.Y had started in 1850. Boatloads arrived daily, first from Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia and Central Europe, later followed by large groups of Italians, Poles, Czechs, Russians and Jews.
The principal structure on the Island is the imposing red Great Hall, an average of 2000 frightened and confused persons passed each day before the stern, scrutinizing eyes of examiners.
The "Wall of Honor" is inscribed with the names of immigrants to the US. When completed, it will immortalize a total of 500 000 individuals.
