A few days in New York City:
Ellis and Liberty Island

Ferrying out to Ellis Island seemed like the perfect way to escape the heat of a swelteringly hot summer day in New York City and catch some fresh sea breezes. I was excited to see the former immigrant arrivals hall turned museum and enjoy the views, hopefully with a correspondingly cool reduction in temperature.

We headed first to Liberty Island, home to the famous Statue of. As the ferry approached even the most jaded anti-tourist trap traveller could not help but be impressed by the sombre green stature of the Lady.

The ferry swung around, with Lady Liberty in the front, the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the bridges to Brooklyn in the background. An incredible sight today, it was easy to imagine how immigrants a century ago would have felt, after more than a week at sea, on the first glimpse of their destination: a great city, their future home or gateway to a new life.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me reads part of the poem, a permanent invitation inscribed at the base of the Statue.

Those new immigrants had one stop to make before entering « the golden door »: the processing centre on Ellis Island. The centre is now a very informative museum on the history of the building, the island, and immigration to the United States. Amazingly, only 2%, or approximately 240,000 people, were denied entry. According to the panels, ‘the vast majority,’ millions and millions, went on to create their new destiny.

And then there was the skyline itself. It doesn’t match the opening movie shots of the 80s, the IKEA posters of the 90s, the news clips and photos from fourteen years ago etched forever in our minds of that terrible day. Now the blue of One World Trade Center rises up into the blue sky, reflecting back Lady Liberty who keeps her vigil, her gaze fixed forward, her torch held high.

As the crowds milled around the islands, picnicking couples, kids with lemonade, generations of families taking selfies and chatting in every language on earth, it was all enough to make one believe in the American Dream.

By Jill Land.

Departure from south Manhattan

First view from the sea

Excitment

The green Lady

Catch forever

Souvenir

Liberty

Manhattan Skyline

Liberty Island

Selfie

First steps on Ellis Island

Ellis Island is an island that is located in Upper New York Bay in the Port of New York and New Jersey, United States. It was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation’s busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine. The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990.

After its opening, Ellis Island was expanded with landfill and additional structures were built. By the time it closed on November 12, 1954, twelve million immigrants had been processed by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration. It is estimated that 10.5 million immigrants departed for points across the United States from the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, located just across a narrow strait. Others would have used one of the other terminals along the North River (Hudson River) at that time.

Between 1905 and 1914, an average of one million immigrants per year arrived in the US. Two-thirds of those individuals emigrated from eastern, southern and central Europe. The peak year for immigration at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed. The all-time daily high occurred on April 17, 1907, when 11,747 immigrants arrived. After the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed, which greatly restricted immigration and allowed processing at overseas embassies, the only immigrants to pass through the station were those who had problems with their immigration paperwork, displaced persons, and war refugees. Today, over 100 million Americans—or something over about one-third of the population—can trace their ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country.

Entrance

Ellis Island est une île située à l’embouchure de l’Hudson à New York, moins d’un kilomètre au nord de Liberty Islandqui abrite la statue de la Liberté. Elle a été, dans la première partie du xx^e siècle, l’entrée principale des immigrantsqui arrivaient aux États-Unis. Les services d’immigration y ont fonctionné du 1^er janvier 1892 jusqu’au12 novembre 1954. L’île est gérée par le gouvernement fédéral et fait désormais partie du monument national de la Statue de la Liberté, sous la juridiction du service des parcs nationaux des États-Unis et abrite un musée. Territorialement, elle est partagée entre la ville de Jersey City dans le New Jersey et la ville de New York dans l’État de New York. 83% de l’île appartient à la ville de Jersey City.

L’île accueillit environ 12 millions de personnes entre son ouverture le 1^er janvier 1892 et sa fermeture le 12 novembre 1954. La plupart des immigrés qui passaient par Ellis Island étaient européens, un certain nombre venant également de pays arabesdominés par l’Empire ottoman. La première immigrante se nommait Annie Moore, une jeune fille de 15 ans venant de comté deCork en Irlande, le 1^er janvier 1892 pour rejoindre avec ses deux frères, leurs parents, qui étaient venus à New York deux ans auparavant. Elle a été accueillie par les officiels et une pièce d’or de dix dollars.

La dernière personne à passer à Ellis Island fut un marchand norvégien du nom de Arne Peterssen en 1954. Après la signature du National Origins Acts en 1924, les seuls immigrants à venir à Ellis Island étaient des déportés ou des réfugiés de guerre. Actuellement, plus de 100 millions d’Américains ont un ou plusieurs ancêtres qui sont arrivés en Amérique en passant par Ellis Island.

From the Museum

Welcome

Great Hall where immigrants were processed

The hall when the island has been closed

Miniature

American Line

American dream

A last view on the skyline

A last view before leaving

Sources: Wikipedia

Thank you for reading. 😉

If you are looking for prints, you can visit my online store.

Receive an email when a new post or a new gallery is online: Subscribe here