ELLIS ISLAND

European emigrants to the United States entered mainly through the harbor in New York. To accommodate the increasing number of immigrants, the Ellis Island facility was opened on January 1, 1892. During the first year alone, more than 450.000 immigrants were processed through this facility. The facility closed in 1954 and by then more than 12 million immigrants had been processed, though the vast majority had arrived prior to 1924. It is estimated that more than 40% or 100 million of the current United States population are descendants of immigrants processed through the Ellis Island facility.

The first view for the passengers as the ship entered the harbor of New York was the Statue of Liberty. This was an emotional and welcoming sight that for many emigrants was the beginning of a new life in America.

Upon arrival to New York, health authorities would board the ship and check for signs for any diseases before any passengers were allowed to disembark. Healthy first and second class passengers were the first to be processed and released straight from the ship without having to go through the Ellis Island processing facility. Typically immigration officers would board the ship, walk to the top levels, meet the waiting passengers perform a quick examination and allow them to disembark, a process which took just a couple of minutes.
 
For the “steerage” located passengers, the entry process had just begun. After disembarking with all their belongings, they would be held in a waiting area until the availability of a ferry boat to take them to the Ellis Island processing facility. This could take a day or up to a couple of weeks.

Once the ferry docked at Ellis Island, the passengers with their belongings would walk to the storage room where all their luggage would be stored while they proceeded through the entry process.
Afterwards, all the passengers walked upstairs to the registry room and waited for further processing.

The primary reason for walking up the multiple set of stairs was for an opportunity for the medical people who were standing on the top floor to view each passenger for any evidence of health issues or ability to walk up the set of stairs. Each passenger was inspected and marked with chalk for; mental defect “X”, conjunctivitis “C”, trachoma “CT”, goiter “G”, lameness “L”, mental disease “X”, back “B”, eyes “E”, face “F”, feet “FT”, hernia “K”, heart “H”, neck “N”, lungs “P”, pregnancy “PG”, scalp “SC”and senility “S”. Trachoma was a serious disease as it could cause blindness to up to 75% of infected people.

The basic purpose of these medical examinations was to make sure that new immigrants would contribute to the workforce rather than being a burden to the American society.
Any passenger who was deemed unhealthy was marked by chalk as defined above and placed in isolation rooms. These rooms contained bunk beds 3-4 m high in multiple rows to maximize the capacity.

After clearing the medical inspections the passengers would then return to the storage room, gather their belongings and proceed to the “Great Hall” for the “legal inspection”. Here they would line up in multiple rows and proceed to the front where an inspector was standing behind a podium. Normally interpreters were available to accommodate the different languages. The passengers were asked questions about themselves based on the information that was provided to the immigration inspectorson the ship manigest that was completed mainly by representatives of the shipping companies when the passengers boarded the ship at the port of departure.

It was critical that passengers memorized all their personal information and answered when asked by the US Customs representatives. Discrepancies will lead to further processing delays or expulsion. This could be a challenge since many of the immigrants were not educated and could not read or write.

After these final interviews each passenger was directed down a set of stairs behind the inspector podiums. The stairs were divided into three rows separated by two stair railings.
Anyone that was marked during the medical inspections or did not answer the questions exactly were directed down the middle stairs. Once outside they were directed to a holding area for further review. There their condition was further reviewed and a decision was made on their status. This process could be as short as one day or many months for others. Once a decision was made, they were either allowed to stay and the others were sent back to the New York harbour and loaded back on the same shipping line and sent back to their point of origin at no charge. A devastating outcome for many who had their dreams crushed by not being allowed to stay. Up to two percent of all arriving passengers were turned back.