Sunday, October 15, 2006

ELLIS ISLAND

Due to a blogger glitch and hours later, here is the end of our big morning in New York City and my favorite place so far. It's so full of history of which I will tell you just a bit...Ellis Island originally was the sight of Fort Gibson, one of a number of fortifications built just before the War of 1812 as part of New York City's first line of defense.

The other constructions included Fort Wood on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island.) The star shaped base that the Statue of Liberty's pedistal sits on is from the original fort), and Castle Clinton (remember the door picture?) which stood 300' off the shore of the Battery at the southern tip of Manhatten (now Battery Park). Castle Clinton (or Castle Garden as it became known for a while) served as America's imigration depot from 1855-1890.
On New Years Day of 1892 the first imigrant entered through the Ellis Island station and it was in operation until November 19, 1954 when it closed it's doors when it became too costly to run.This is a view of Manhattan through a window in the Great Hall or famous Registry Room, which is huge and majesticly beautiful with it's high arched ceilings and beautiful windows. You can almost imagine how noisy it must have been with the thousands of imigrant voices all speaking different languages echoing off the walls and ceiling! On it's first day of operation, 2,251 people were inspected on Ellis Island!

3 Comments:

Blogger Cathy said...

These are great pictures of your trip! Keep them coming, Marci!

Monday, October 16, 2006 at 7:52:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I enjoyed your pictures of the trip. Sorry you are having trouble with Blogger. He can be a pain at times! -- Alysun

Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 2:56:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Jessi Reber said...

I had left a comment, but I see it's not here now...interesting... at any rate I asked about the ghost coming out of the Ellis Island building (the 2nd from the bottom)...did you notice that? Hmm...maybe a disgruntled immigrant sent back from whence he came.

Monday, October 23, 2006 at 6:36:00 PM PDT  

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