Ellis Island

ELLIS ISLAND

Ellis Island is situated in the New York Harbor, off the southern tip of Manhattan. It was named for Samuel Ellis (n.d.), a merchant and farmer who owned the island during the late 1700s. New York acquired the land and, in 1808, sold it to the federal government. The site served as a fort and later, as an arsenal. By the end of the century record numbers of immigrants prompted the federal government to establish a bureau to process the new arrivals, the vast majority of whom entered the country at its largest port, New York City. On January 1, 1892, the Federal Immigration Station opened on Ellis Island—in the shadows of the Statue of Liberty (dedicated 1886 on nearby Bedloe Island). The Ellis Island facility, which by 1901 consisted of thirty-five buildings, was the country's chief immigration station. Its heaviest use was in processing the influx of immigrants who arrived between 1892 and 1924. The majority of new arrivals were European, but immigrants also came from the West Indies, Asia, and the Middle East. More men than women arrived at the immigration depot.

New arrivals (mostly third-class passengers; firstand second-class passengers were processed aboard their ships) were ferried from their transatlantic vessels to Ellis Island, where they disembarked and were guided into registration areas in the Great Hall and questioned by government officials who determined their eligibility to land. Upon completing the registration process newcomers were ushered into rooms where physicians examined them. The process, extremely business-like to the point of being dehumanizing, typically took between three to five hours. Ninety-eight percent of those arriving at Ellis Island were allowed into the country; two percent were turned back for medical reasons (as U.S. health officials tried to keep out infectious diseases) or for reasons of insanity or criminal record. Other facilities at the Ellis Island Immigration Station included showers, restaurants, railroad ticket offices, a laundry, and a hospital. At its peak the Ellis Island station processed some five thousand immigrants and non-immigrating aliens (visitors) daily.

The facility was closed on November 29, 1954— immigration quotas had drastically reduced the number of incoming people, eliminating the need for the mass processing center. On May 11, 1965, Ellis Island was designated a national historic site. During the 1980s it was extensively restored. More than twelve million people first entered the United States through Ellis Island; their descendants account for an estimated 40 percent of the nation's current population.

See also: Immigration