Memorial
Financial District
Ellis Island
Ellis Island is a museum and former immigration inspection station in New York Harbor, within the states of New York and New Jersey. It was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. Before being used as an inspection station, Ellis Island used to be the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine. The island was greatly expanded by land reclamation between 1892 and 1934, and now has a land area of 27.5 acres. The original island and contiguous areas, comprising 3.3 acres, is part of New York, but all the reclaimed land is part of New Jersey. When it was an active immigrant inspection station, Ellis Island contained facilities for processing immigrants and for medical quarantines. The entire island was made part of Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965 and the original main building has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990. The Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, on the south side of the island, is closed to the general public except for occasional tours. The only public access to Ellis Island is via boat, though it contains a footbridge to New Jersey that is closed to the public.
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