So we decide to take a tour of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty today. Our day begins in Liberty State Park where we get on the Miss Ellis Island ferry. The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal in the park has docks large enough for a ferry to take folks over to the islands. More on the railroad terminal later.
Our first stop is Ellis Island. They have a wonderful recorded self guided tour that will walk you through what life was like as an immigrant and the process to be allowed to come in to the United States or be sent back. You may already know this, but not all immigrants came through Ellis Island. The ships that brought people from other countries had different passenger classes, much like airlines do today. The first and second class passengers received an inspection in their stateroom and were let off just south of the Verrizzano Bridge and gained entry into the county. Third class, or steerage, passengers had to go through Ellis Island and were required to show competence, health and have the financial means to enter the country.
Over 12 million immigrants went through the Great Hall. With a quick review, most gained entry. However, there were others, about 2%, that were rejected and forced to return to their home country. The shipping line that brought them over were responsible for getting them back, at the ship owners expense.
If there was a medical, mental or legal problem that needed review, they were detained. Sadly, some families were split up or broken apart when one of the family was sent back.
Remember the train station at the beginning of the day? Another requirement was for the person to have enough money for train fare to get to a relative.
Although it wasn’t a perfect system, I think the United States did well to make immigrants comfortable and care for their needs. An example of this was in the hospital tour we went on. No expense was spared when putting together the facility that housed the sick. It was adorned with porcelain, marble, granite and even some Tiffany lamps. In addition to making the sick comfortable, there was thought put in to keeping things medicinally clean. The two sinks above are an example of that. This picture is from the tuberculosis unit where the upper sink was used to cough in and the water from that sink was sent to a furnace with the hopes of destroying any contagion. While the other was a regular sink. Kind of gross but also pretty interesting.
After Ellis Island, we boarded the ferry for the two minute ride to the Statue of Liberty.
Does this picture look fake to you? It does to me, but I assure it’s genuine. We toured the museum then walked around outside. It is an incredible feeling to try and put yourself in the shoes of someone in the 1900’s seeing the Statue for the first time and the hopes of a new life with a fresh start.
That is one big foot!
This is the original flame from the Statue. It was damaged in 1916 from a munitions explosion and was replaced during a major renovation in 1986. Does it seem like the damage in 1916 couldn’t have been THAT bad to wait 70 years to replace it???
We got back to the boat, gathered up the pooch and walked to Krispy Pizza for dinner. We had to try NY pizza before leaving and it was excellent. We got the meat lovers and it came with sausage, meatballs, pepperoni and bacon. It was a huge pizza and you can see that tomorrow’s lunch is going to be great!
The Colgate clock was just down the street from the pizza place so we had to take a look up close and personal. That’s me trying to get my hands in the right position to show the time. Is that clock huge or what?!
This was our last day in the “Big City” and tomorrow we head for Croton on the Hudson. Not sure how long we’ll stay there, but it’s supposed to be beautiful and we’ll be getting out of salty water, yay!!
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