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How Ellis Island was made
www.libertyellisfoundation.org/ellis-island-history in 1808 New York State buys the island from his family for $10,000. The U.S. War Department pays the state for the right to use Ellis Island to build military fortifications and store ammunition, beginning during the War of 1812. Half a decade later, Ellis Island is used as a munitions arsenal for the Union army during the Civil War. -Anastasia Gentry -
First state-run immigrations depots
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/ Castle Garden, one of the first state-run immigration depots, opens at the Battery in lower Manhattan in 1855. Anastasia Gentry -
Steam power worries
www.libertyellisfoundation.org/ellis-island-history
Steam power had shortened the journey to America dramatically. Immigrants poured in from around the world: from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and down from Canada.
Anastasia Gentry -
Asian Immigrants
www.infoplease.com/spot/immigration1.htmlThe experience for Asian immigrants in this period was quite different. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, severely restricting immigration from China. Since earlier laws made it difficult for those Chinese immigrants who were already here to bring over their wives and families, most Chinese communities remained "bachelor societies." Anastasia Gentry -
Constructing Ellis Island
www.libertyellisfoundation.org/ellis-island-historyAfter the Civil War, Ellis Island stands vacant, until the government decides to replace the New York immigration station at Castle Garden, which closes in 1890. Control of immigration is turned over to the federal government, and $75,000 is appropriated for construction of the first federal immigration station on Ellis Island. Artesian wells are dug and the island’s size is doubled to over six acres.
Anastasia Gentry -
Beginning of heading to Ellis Island
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/ The door was wide open for Europeans. In the 1880s alone, 9% of the total population of Norway emigrated to America. After 1892, nearly all immigrants came in through the newly opened Ellis Island.
Anastasia Gentry -
Arriving in Ellis Island
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/ The first Ellis Island Immigration Station officially opens on January 1, 1892, as three large ships wait to land. Seven hundred immigrants passed through Ellis Island that day, and nearly 450,000 followed over the course of that first year.
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During the ride to Ellis Island
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/One immigrant recalled arriving at Ellis Island: "The boat anchored at mid-bay and then they tendered us on the ship to Ellis Island…We got off the boat…you got your bag in your hand and went right into the building. Ah, that day must have been about five to six thousand people. Jammed, I remember it was August. Hot as a pistol, and I'm wearing my long johns, and my heavy Irish tweed suit." -
Accident at Ellis Island
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-ellisisland-06.htm
On June 15, 1897, with 200 immigrants on the island, a fire breaks out in one of the towers in the main building and the roof collapses. Though no one is killed, all immigration records dating back to 1840 and the Castle Garden era are destroyed. The immigration station is relocated to the barge office in Manhattan’s Battery Park.
Anastasia Gentry -
Ellis Island grows
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-ellisisland-06.htm
To create additional space at Ellis Island, two new islands are created using landfill. Island Two houses the hospital administration and contagious diseases ward, while Island Three holds the psychiatric ward. By 1906, Ellis Island has grown to more than 27 acres, from an original size of only three acres.
Anastasia Gentry
