Ellis Island (document en anglais)

1) Ellis Island was used as immigrant arrival port from 1892 to 1954.

2) Over 12 millions immigrant passed throught Ellis Island.

3) Ellis Island is located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

4) Before it became an immigration station Ellis Island “played a mostly uneventful but still important military role in United States history”, “developed from a sandy island that barely rose above the high tide mark, into a hanging site for pirates, a harbor fort, ammunition and ordinance depot named Fort Gibson”.

5) The first immigration processed is “Annie Moore, a 15 year-old Irish girl, accompanied by her two brothers entered history and a new country as she was the very first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island on January 2.”

6) In 1897 a fire on Ellis Island burned the immigration station. No lives were lost but the pine buildings that failed to protect them.

7) First and second class passengers who arrived in New York Harbor were not required to do the inspection process at Ellis Island. The theory being that if a person could afford to purchase a first or second class ticket, they were less likely to become a public charge in America due to medical or legal reasons. However, first and second class passengers were sent to Ellis Island for further inspection if they were sick or had legal problems.

This scenario was really different for "steerage" or third class passengers. These immigrants traveled in crowded and often unsanitary conditions near the bottom of steamships with few amenities. The steerage and third class passengers were transported from the pier by ferry or barge to Ellis Island where everyone would do a medical and legal inspection.

8) The Ellis Island inspection process would last approximately three to five hours.

9) Ellis Island was also called "Island of Tears". Only two percent of the arriving immigrants were excluded from entry.

10) “Actually, immigration was on the rise and in 1907, more people immigrated to the United States than any other year; approximately 1.25 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island in that one year.”

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12) “In November of 1954 the last detainee, a Norwegian merchant seaman named Arne Peterssen was released, and Ellis Island officially closed.”

13) Now Ellis Island has been open to the public a

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