Ellis Island - The Island Of Hope

Overview

The Immigration center was originally built in 1892 to regulate immigration into the US. The immigrants came by boat or ships. These ships were enormous and could bring large amounts of people over the Atlantic. Most of the immigrants were from southern and eastern Europe. Immigrants coming by first or second class was allowed to go straight into the country without any checks, but the third class, on the other hand, had to go to Ellis Island.

The Island

Third class immigrants were brought by boat to Ellis Island for further checking in order for them to enter the US. They had to go through a lot of checking there. The over 300 people that worked at Ellis Island checked for diseases and abnormal people. These people were taken out of the line for further investigation. The doctors mainly checked for people walking weird and people having other signs of diseases like a red eye. From 1903 to 1915 there was an epidemy of a common eye disease that was highly contagious. 

 Fun facts

• The first immigrant to ever pass Ellis Island was a 15 years old girl.
• Einstein immigrated to America.
• The invention of steamships made immigration more common and efficient. 
• Only 75% of immigrants went to Ellis Island.
• The immigration process usually only took a few hours.
• 98% of immigrants passed the process.
• 120 000 people with diseases or disabilities were sent back to their country, for free of course.
• 335 babies were porn on Ellis Island.