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Ellis Island

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Ellis Island Overview

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photo by SSchultz
More than 12 million people passed through the immigration station on nearby Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. The main building now houses a remarkable museum of immigration, where visitors can pass, as their forebears might have, through the various examination and registration rooms of the island. The museum movingly features the recorded memories of immigrants who passed through here.
By: Cyrus Submitted: 08/22/2007 Comments on this fact? Tell the TravelGoat editors.
In 1880 Ellis Island, together with the islands known as Governor's, Bedloe's (on which stands the Statue of Liberty), and David's; Forts Lafayette, Hamilton, Wadsworth, and Schuyler were granted by the State of New York to the United States.
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By: Cyrus Submitted: 08/22/2007 Comments on this fact? Tell the TravelGoat editors.
Formerly known as Oyster Island, now called Ellis Island, it was in 1808 acquired for $10,000 by the State of New York when Daniel D. Tompkins was Governor.
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By: Cyrus Submitted: 08/22/2007 Comments on this fact? Tell the TravelGoat editors.
On June 14, 1897, a fire on Ellis Island burned the immigration station completely to the ground. Even though no lives where lost, many years of Federal and State immigration record dating back to 1855 burned along with the pine building that failed to protect them.
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