Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty

Sunday, November 8, 2009 Sunny

Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty can be reached from lower Manhattan or from Liberty Park in Jersey City, New Jersey. We drove a short distance to Liberty Park on the freeway. We had to go through a toll station and pick up a ticket and then when you get off, you go through another booth with a live person who tells you how much you owe. Our offramp was one turnoff after the one we entered, where we had picked up the ticket! It cost $1!! Imagine how many people are going to Liberty Park this way. They are making a fortune!

Liberty Park was a huge area and at one end there was a restored train station. You could see where the trains used to arrive. Weeds were growing everywhere. The station was huge and that is where we had to go through security and buy tickets for the boat ride to both islands.

Ellis Island was the main point of entry for more than 12 million immigrants from 1892 to 1954, including my father's mother. It is now a museum since 1990 with a step-by-step view of immigrant processing through historic photographs and written pages. I photographed many of them and am including them here so I won't repeat the stories. Just click on the picture and it will enlarge so that you can read it. There are a few in Swedish - like the list of passengers.

When the immigrants finally landed, they met their first American - an interpreter. The average number of languages spoken by an interpreter was six - the record was 15 languages! The immigrants were led up a steep stairway to the Registry Room. A doctor stood at the top of the stairs watching for signs of lameness, heavy breathing (possibly due to heart probems), or "bewildered gazes" that might indicate a mental condition. The doctor would scrawl a large white letter with chalk on the person, indicating that the person was to be detained for further medical inspection. The next exam was an eye exam which was done with a hook (like a button hook) - see my picture. They were looking for symptoms of trachoma, an eye disease that caused blindness and even death. It meant certain deportation. Has anybody heard of this disease? Sick or feeble-minded immigrants were deported. Sick children 12 or older were sent back to Europe alone and were released in the port from which they had come. Children younger than 12 had to be accompanied by a parent. There were many tearful scenes as families with a sick child decided who would go and who would stay. If you passed the medical test, you needed to pass the inspector's exam. Most passed; only two percent would fail to be admitted. Next,to the Money Exchange to get American dollars. And then to the railroad ticket office for a ticket to wherever they were headed.

Just after we had arrived in the building everybody was told to leave the building as there was an alarm of some sort. We all wandered around outside and at one point they said that the building was now closed. A Park Police boat was hovering in the water. At one point I saw that the flag was hanging at half mast. I blurted out: "Why is it at half mast?" The woman next to me answered that it probably was because of the shooting at Fort Hood. We started to talk and I found out that she was Swedish, visiting for one week with her girlfriend. We talked for a while and suddenly we were allowed to enter the building again. While we were in the large Registry Room, one of the women came up to me to alert me to the Swedish immigrants listed on the Ship's Manifest. I am enclosing pictures of those pages.

There was a cafeteria where we had lunch - fish and chips but you were allowed to supstitute the chips for carrots! Great idea!

Now we were ready to take the boat to see the Statue of Liberty. It was presented to the US by France and dedicated in 1886 in commemoration of the two countries' alliance during the American Revolution. The colonists probably could not have won their freedom from the British without the help of the French. France provided arms, ships, money and men. Some like the Marquis de Lafayette, a close friend of George Wahington, became high-ranking officers in the American army.

We were able to walk up the stairs - 168 - inside the pedestal - up to the observation platform from where we had a beautiful view towards Manhattan and many bridges. On the way we were able to see the origianl torch. That material (?) did not withstand the weather so it was replaced with something else (?).

They were now closing so we had to run to the giftshop to buy postcards for Dylan who studied the Statue of Liberty in Kindergarden. Then on to the boat where we were watching the sun set before we landed at the Liberty Park.

Our next goal was to reach Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We had made reservations at Candlewood Suites in Horsham, PA.