Statue of Liberty / Ellis Island
On my first ever trip to New York, back in 1983, the Statue of Liberty was under renovation, and they weren't allowing tourists out to Liberty Island. In May 2001, when we went to Amy & Whit's wedding, we just didn't have a chance to go, what with all the other stuff we were doing. This trip, we made it a priority to head out to the statue, and were glad we did.
We leave Battery Park at the south tip of Manhattan and head out toward Liberty Island. Interesting fact: Although Liberty Island
is part of the State of New York, it lies in New Jersey waters. Tuck that fact away in the back of your brain for future use
in Trivial Pursuit.
Here you begin to get an idea of how magnificent the statue really is. Those are full-sized people, not
multi-colored ants, at the bottom.
This was as close as we got. We were too late to take any tours that would have allowed us up into the statue. By the way,
in case you weren't aware, since 9/11 they no longer allow the public up into the crown. (We weren't sure what you could get
away with in the crown that you couldn't elsewhere, but it's greater minds than ours...)
Looking back at Manhattan here, you can see the Empire State Building. It's the pointy one way off in the distance.
Tourists! They're the worst!
This is the arrival hall at Ellis Island. The facility at Ellis Island is absolutely fascinating, and we were disappointed we
couldn't spend more time there. Of the staggering number of immigrants into the US from 1890 through 1930, virtually
all came through here. The complex is now a museum that includes numerous exhibits showing such things as how the ethnic
makeup of the arriving hordes changed over time, what routes they travelled to get here, in what states they tended to settle, etc.
There are also searchable databases available to the public. You can find out if a particular ancestor arrived at Ellis Island.
There were also a couple of other exhibits, not directly related to US immigration, but having a sort of "freedom vs. oppression" theme. The one that impressed me the most was on the Soviet Gulags. Gulags were forced labor camps, similar to those in which the Germans imprisoned the Jews during World War II. Prisoners in the Gulags were usually there for political reasons, having been determined to be enemies of the Soviet state. If you ever venture into this part of the museum at Ellis Island, expect to emerge in lower spirits than when you entered.
On our way back from Ellis Island we saw this big orange boat. We think it might have
been the Staten Island Ferry, but we're still not sure.