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Ellis Island was the international gateway not only to New York but to every community in the United States. Over 100 million Americans can trace their ancestry to a man, woman, or child whose name passed from a steamship manifest sheet to an inspector's record book in the great Registry Room at Ellis Island.
Copyright Ellis Island Immigration Museum, National Park Service
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The
peak year of immigration was 1907 when more than one million immigrants
passed through Ellis Island, 12,000 of them in one day alone. By 1924,
when Congress began restricting mass immigration more aggressively,
more than 17 million people immigrated through the port of New York.
After 1924, immigrants now were more commonly inspected in their countries
of origin. After that time, the island was primarily used as a detention
center for illegals or those facing deportation, and during World
War II, for enemy aliens. In 1954, the Inspection Station was closed;
in 1990 it was officially reopened as a national monument.
