Over 12 million immigrants stepped onto soil that's now a museum—which island?

The Gateway Opens

Ellis Island began receiving immigrants on January 1, 1892, when a fifteen-year-old Irish girl named Annie Moore became the first person processed at the new federal facility. Built on landfill that expanded the island from three acres to twenty-seven, the wooden structures burned to the ground in 1897, taking all immigration records with them. The rebuilt station, a French Renaissance Revival complex designed by architects Boring and Tilton, opened in December 1900 with fireproof construction and a vaulted Registry Room that could hold thousands.

Between 1892 and 1954, more than 12 million immigrants passed through the island—roughly 40 percent of all Americans today can trace at least one ancestor to an Ellis Island arrival. The facility was located in New York Harbor specifically to intercept ships before they docked, allowing federal authorities to screen newcomers for contagious diseases and legal admissibility under the quota systems that tightened after World War I. Peak years occurred between 1900 and 1914, when the station processed an average of five thousand people daily, with April 17, 1907 holding the single-day record of 11,747 arrivals.

The Inspection Gauntlet

Immigrants climbed a staircase from the baggage room to the second-floor Registry Room, where doctors watched for limps, wheezing, or confusion—signs of ailments that could bar entry. Medical inspectors marked chalk symbols on the clothing of those requiring further examination: "H" for suspected heart problems, "L" for lameness, "X" for mental illness, and a circled "X" for definite psychological disorders. Physicians checked for trachoma, a contagious eye disease that was grounds for immediate deportation, using buttonhooks to flip eyelids in what immigrants remembered as one of the most frightening parts of the ordeal.

Only about two percent of arrivals were ultimately rejected and sent back across the Atlantic, though twenty percent faced additional questioning or medical detention. Legal inspectors asked twenty-nine questions covering occupation, finances, criminal history, and intended destination. Translators speaking thirty-six languages helped families navigate the bureaucracy, while aid societies representing ethnic and religious groups stationed representatives in the Great Hall to assist bewildered newcomers with money exchanges, railroad tickets, and finding relatives.

From Peak to Closure

The Immigration Act of 1924 established national origin quotas that dramatically reduced the numbers arriving at Ellis Island by requiring visa inspections at American consulates overseas before departure. The island shifted from processing mass arrivals to serving primarily as a detention and deportation center. During World War II, the Coast Guard used the facility to hold suspected enemy aliens, including crew members from captured German vessels and detained foreign nationals awaiting hearings.

Ellis Island officially closed on November 12, 1954, when the last detainee, Norwegian seaman Arne Peterssen, was released. The abandoned buildings deteriorated for decades as vandals stripped copper, pigeons nested in the Registry Room, and rain destroyed documents. Congress designated the island part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, but restoration did not begin until 1984 with a $160 million public-private campaign led by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

Legacy and Modern Connection

The Ellis Island Immigration Museum opened in 1990 after meticulous restoration returned the Registry Room to its 1918-24 appearance, complete with original white tile ceiling vaults and American flags. The American Family Immigration History Center houses digitized passenger manifests accessible online, allowing visitors to search ship records and view images of actual arrival documents. More than 51 million Americans have researched their family history using this database since it launched in 2001.

The island remains a powerful symbol in contemporary immigration debates, invoked by advocates across the political spectrum to support various policy positions. In 2015, both New York and New Jersey claimed jurisdiction over parts of the expanded island in a dispute that highlighted how landfill projects had altered the original boundaries. Today, over four million people visit annually, making it one of the nation's most popular historic sites, where descendants leave flowers, photographs, and notes at the American Immigrant Wall of Honor commemorating over 775,000 individuals who entered America through this processing center.