Our second day in New York City was spent at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We took a ferry to Liberty Island, where we enjoyed lunch on a bench along the water, admiring the beautiful view of Manhattan. There were several hundred people on Liberty Island, but the atmosphere was surprisingly calm and serene. Definitely not something we expected to find in the Big Apple.
Sadly, we weren’t able to go inside the Statue of Liberty. Touring the crown and pedestal requires a reservation several months in advance, and the torch has been closed since July 30th, 1916, when it was damaged by the Black Tom Bombing. The bombing was done by German agents in order to destroy United States munitions that would be sent to the Allies during World War I. The U.S. was still neutral at that point.
The only people who have access to the torch are National Park Service employees. They have to climb a 40-foot ladder to access the floodlights that light the torch. Have any of you been inside the statue? What was it like? Perhaps you even know someone who climbed up to the torch a hundred years ago?
Ellis island was the highlight for me. We walked through the main building, where the immigrants arrived, with an excellent tour guide. It was interesting to hear that only the steerage passenger set foot on Ellis Island. The richer folks had their inspections on the ship and were dropped off right in Manhattan.
The photo above shows the main hall, where the immigrants were processed. Below are the stairs that they were sent down after inspection. One row was for those who were cleared to enter the United States. One was for those who would be detained on the island. In that case, immigrants would have to decide whether the entire family would stay together on Ellis Island together, at their own expense, or whether the rest of the family would leave the detained individuals behind and begin to make a life in America, with hopes of reuniting. If the family’s sole breadwinner was detained, the others would not be allowed to enter the country until he or she was released. The government wanted to make sure that immigrant families had the ability to earn money and feed their children.
The third row was for the immigrants who would be sent back to their home country, expenses paid for by the company that owned the ship that had brought them. We were intrigued to learn that that is still the case. If you fly to another country and are not allowed to enter for whatever reason, the airline is responsible for taking you home.
Through the doors at the bottom of the stairs is the area known as the “Kissing Post,” where family members and friends were reunited.
Near the main hall, the tour guide pointed out a pillar covered in historic graffiti, written by immigrants who were detained at Ellis Island.
Do any of my American or Canadian readers have relatives who passed through Ellis Island? Our tour guide said that 40% of United States citizens do.
Hi Ellie,
My aunt, who died a year ago, passed through Ellis Island from Germany. When my cousin visited several years ago, she was able to make a charcoal shading of my aunts name which was inscribed somewhere. Apparently names were listed during the time she passed through.
We visited Ellis Island several years ago, and loved learning about it. We’re history buffs too. We enjoyed learning the stories of folks who were just like us, regular people, trying to make a better life for themselves and their children. My parents are immigrants, and my grandmother would say to my cousins and I that we should be kind and helpful to immigrants. ” Our shoes are still wet, no one had a party for us when we came over either.”
great pictures!
i’ve been doing our genealogy and found the ellis island site very useful on my mom’s side of the family. her maternal grandfather came from galicia (which was in austria at the time) and the site shows the ship he was on. its amazing to see that. with his very uncommon last name, it was easier to research than with my great grandmother, who had a more common polish surname. with her i figured it would be easy, (like how many women are named after queen kunegunda of poland?) but i found that was not the case at all!
my ggf’s wife died after her 7th child and he returned to galicia, which was in poland then, and came back here with a nanny. they married and had 5 more children, including my grandmother. my ggm traveled with a sister who stayed on and eventually more of her family was able to come to the us.
its usually much harder to research women than men due to name changes but also the person recording the info wrote what they heard/saw. like albanese is now albany because that is the pronunciation and o’rourk is now grourk because of the handwriting on the manifests. just different accents alone would make it difficult to be completely accurate and i imagine the processors had quite a time with them!
What an amazing story! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Ellie,
I remember going inside the Statue of Liberty when I was a kid. I remember there being A LOT of stairs and it taking a long time because of the number of people. Climbing in the Statue was rather small from what I remember. We went to the crown level where there was a view out the widows of her crown.
We took our kids a few years ago but we didn’t have reservations either so we just toured the island and took pictures. My boys enjoyed just being on the island and being up close to the Statue.
I’ve been to the statue. I climbed to the crown as a kid. Back then you didn’t need reservations. If you were at the statue and wanted to climb up, you did. I remember the view of the harbor was magnificent. I wouldn’t visit it nowadays. “Nobody goes there any more because it’s too crowded.”
I thought my mother said she remembered going up to the torch, but that closed a little before her time. I’ll bet my other ancestors did. They came through Castle Garden between 1850 and 1870, and never left the city.
I’m not surprised the atmosphere there was “calm and serene.” You can find places like that all over the city. I’ve been in the park along the Hudson in Midtown when not another soul was around, middle of the day, only the pigeons and me.
FYI, there are lots of NYC immigration records online. I’ve been to the Federal Building in Lower Manhattan and pulled records on incoming ships’ passenger lists, too. They have them on microfiche and the public can access them.
My mom’s ancestors immigrated a couple hundred years before Ellis Island opened, but my dad’s side of the family came through Ellis Island. One of my 2nd great grandmas came over from what is now modern-day Poland (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) with her five youngest children, (aged 10 and under) to meet her husband and older son who had come over to NYC a year before. (Imagine taking care of 5 little kids in steerage!) Very typical late 19th C./ early 20th C. Jewish immigration story. Many immigrants sent the husband/dad and older son over first to get a foothold before having the mom and kids come over years later. A bit more unusual was my other 2nd great grandma, who travelled by herself from Russia as a 16 year old and met up with her older sister who had immigrated to the U.S. years earlier. Life must have been pretty desperate (which from the historical record we know it was) for her family in Russia to let their daughter venture on her own across the sea, never to return. Immigration and visiting Ellis Island can be gut wrenching but it also makes me feel so proud of my ancestors and thankful that they were accepted into the U.S. My ancestors were the “wretched refuse” and “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” from Emma Lazarus’ famous poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. As far as we know, these ancestors were our only ancestors from their family lines to emigrate, so most likely the family members who stayed behind in Europe were decimated in the Holocaust.
Great blog! Wonderful place to visit. I have always been interested in Ellis Island as someone from an immigrant family.(Church sponsored immigration.)Very interesting info. Thanks! My family came through New York on our way to Montreal and then by train to Western Canada. Very long trip. But Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty really personify the immigrant arrival experience. Eileen
Ellie, Thank you so much for sharing the photos from Ellis Island. My grandfather came through there from Belfast, Ireland. I’ve never been to Ellis Island, and I would love to go some day. Just looking at your wonderful photos and reading your travelog was very moving. It is a poignant reminder that our country has long been a melting pot. It’s who we are.