New York

July 31st I drove to Liberty State Park in New Jersey to catch the Ferry to Ellis Island.  It was much easier than trying to get on at Battery Park.  I was the first one in the parking lot at 7am because I wanted to make sure I got on the first boat which left at 8:30.  When I went there were maybe about 30 people on the boat, but by the time I got back four hours later there was double that, and probably four times that on the boat from Battery Park.  So if you don't like crowds I suggest getting there early and taking the ferry from New Jersey.

Hello


With the purchase of your ticket you got an audio tour, which gave you information about the building of both Ellis Island, why people came over, where they went, how long they would be there, and the different people that worked there.  You could also read and hear stories from actual people who came through Ellis Island.  On the audio it said about 20% of the people that came over were sent back for either medical reasons or legal reasons.

View from the Shore

 These are some of the different things that would be marked on one's coat coming in.  If they had one of these marks they would need to be further examined to see whether the illness would go away or if it wouldn't, they would be sent back to their originating country.  

Further Inspection

X-Suspected mental illness, X with a circle- Definite signs of metal disease observed, B-Back, C-Conjunctivitis, CT-Trachoma, E-Eyes, F-Face, Ft-Feet, G-Goiter, H-Heart, K-Hernia, L-Lameness, N-Neck, P-Physical and Lungs, Pg-Pregnancy, Sc-Scalp (Favus), and S-Senility.

Eye Exam

Elin Bjork number 13, my relative

These are the steps one would take when they arrived at Ellis Island.  Arriving in New York - Entering Ellis Island - Medical Inspection - Legal Inspection - Admission.

When arrived

Portraits of people who came through Ellis Island

You also got an audio tour of State of Liberty.  Giving history of the statue, what it means, and the first thing immigrants saw coming into Ellis Island.

Liberty Enlightening the World


 I tried to reserve tickets to walk up to the crown of The State of Liberty but they are all booked for three months.  I did get to walk up to the pedestal.  There were 195 steps, and since I am now an avid hiker I thought this should be easy.  I nearly died again. 

Original torch

 My last stop in New York was in Coney Island,  Shelby actually took me to Brighton Park, which is about a 20 minute walk down the pier from Coney Island.  While there I got a hot dog from the world famous Nathan's and I also learned hand ball is huge there.  

Coney Island

Traffic once again was awful, there are a ton of construction projects going on which equals being stuck in traffic for two hours.    I did listen to a Russian radio station while I was stuck in traffic and let me just tell you Russian radio has a lot of news updates, but the music is very entertaining.  

Cool shirt