Alex Kemeny

Review of Statue of Liberty and Ellis Is...

The Ellis Island Immigration Center and Liberty Is...

The Ellis Island Immigration Center and Liberty Island Ferry is a must see in NYC. Ellis Island Museum contains photos and stories from the period when it was the entry way into the US from 1892 until 1954. But it's a lot of photos, films and recordings so if you find that stuff dry maybe give it a miss. Nice boat ride though and walking around Liberty Island and hearing via audio guide included in the $18.50 combo Liberty Island and Ellis Island cruise about the history of how the monument was conceived and constructed was very interesting. On Ellis Island we got a bad National Park Guide though. Doug Treem or similar was his name. His talk was more of a American nationalistic propaganda speech than informational. We did learn (from the signage) that 12 million people came through Ellis Island Immigration Center in the 62 years it was open. Doug claimed 13 million and said that 3,000 people a day was average, and 5,000 if it was busy. But hang on, do the maths and it's less than 600 a day. He also said that it only closed 1 to 2 days a year. A lot of the talk was hype and so it seems the numbers he quoted were beefed up by orders of magnitude. All other NPS tour guides I've met on this trip have been great.