Ellis Island

             Ellis Island was the major US Immigration hub in the late 1800's and the early 1900's. Between the years of 1892 and 1954 some 12 million were processed at Ellis Island . To many, Ellis Island represented the gateway to opportunity and a new and prosperous life by way of the American dream. However to the 25 that were turned away from Ellis Island and denied entrance into the U.S., Ellis Island represented cold shutting doors of hopelessness and failure. Those that were turned away from Ellis Island were few percentages wise, but 2% of 12million translates into more than 250,000 dreams destroyed .
             The Ellis Island known today was founded by the New York State government in1855 and it was the first immigrant processing station established in the United States. This maverick immigrant processing station was originally based on an island off the southwest tip of Manhattan, Castle Garden. The NY State Government placed this Immigrant processing station off shore for two main reasons. The first of those reasons being, for the protection of the immigrants whom were often robbed or tricked out of their already meager funds by city swindlers. Also, to further prevent the spread of any infectious diseases that potential immigrants may have been carrying. Prior to the establishment of the Castle Garden processing station, Immigrants were allowed to simply walk freely into Manhattan harbor after departing from their ships. In April of 1890, due to legal issues, the castle garden project was ended and the US government purchased a swampy and small island to the to the southeast of Manhattan, where they would construct a new immigrant processing center and name it Ellis Island. Ellis Island was formally opened on January 1, 1892 . The first Building was designed to process around 10,000 immigrants a day and the original design was not too far off the actual capabilities of the finished product. Because of a fire in ...

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Ellis Island. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 07:19, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/77768.html