Ellis Island

Ellis Island has been a tourist attraction but has the history of being an immigration station that was first used in 1892 and was in service for 60 years has finally closed in 1954. More than 40% of all immigrants can trace their ancestors having have immigrated through Ellis Island.


From opening day more than 12 million people will have passed through this immigration station during its 60 years of service. But the original island would not have been able to handle all of these people. From its original size of 3 acres, there has been an addition of 27 others to make it at its current size of 30 acres. There has been the addition of psychiatric, contagious diseases ward, and a basic hospital ward all on this island. As more than 1 million people were coming in at Ellis Island during its high point, America needed to pass legislation to limit the number of people entering. Federal laws were passed that excluded people that had any type of disabilities and also limited children to arrive without adults.

But from its high point, that island went through a transformation stage in 1950 where they were converting the island to be a hub for the coast guard and there was going to be more immigration stations built on other places across the US coastline.


This was a short-lived usage as Lyndon B Johnson gave the area under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service and became part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. There have been attempts to bring the monument back to its original with a "$156 million dollar restoration of Ellis Island’s Main Arrivals Building is completed and re-opened to the public in 1990", aimed to show that the history of the United States is made up of by large amounts of immigration.


https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/ellis-island