Ellis Island
Ellis Island immigration museum was a real eye-opener into the history and creation of the United States of America through mass immigration. It explains the diversity of some part of the United States. Over 12 million immigrants came through his harbour into America and this museum. All to escape political and economic oppression to try and start a new life in America and it wasn’t easy to pass through this immigrant inspection center, this museum describes what they had to go through to make it.
queuing for the ferry was no joke, in the New York winter temperatures it just seemed more like a mass of people rather than an orderly queue. Even at this time of year there seemed to be a lot of people, I could imagine summer being three times as busy.
As you arrive off the ferry onto Ellis island you enter the Grand Hall. This is the path that the immigrants took, the size of the hall is reflective of how many people came through here.
Many American’s feared Immigrants wouldn’t be able to ‘assimilate’ with the American way of life because of cultural differences and the KKK gained much membership as a result.
My friend and I were shocked at the use of the legal term, ‘naturalisation’ which is even used in current day to explain gaining citizenship or nationality.
Statue of Liberty – Liberty Island
The Statue was a gift from the people of France to the United States of America. Also known as ‘Lady Liberty’ this statue symbolises the friendship between the two nations. One of the world’s most recognisable landmark, a symbol which is supposed to represent freedom and democracy.
Going through airport security type checks and paying extra to forcibly have to put our bags into lockers we were ready to go. Climbing the 215 steps to the Statue of Liberty Pedestal probably felt a lot longer than it was. What a feeling to be inside the Statue of Liberty! Unexpectedly the inside of the pedestal contained artefacts from the history of the statue. a prominent one was the original torch from 1986. also learnt a lot about its structure and creation.
