NARRATOR: An estimated 40% of Americans
are descended from immigrants that
passed through Ellis Island.
That's a lot of Americans.
The first Ellis Island immigration station
opened on January 1, 1892 in New York Harbor
to manage the increasing number of migrants coming to America.
In that first year, a record number of nearly 450,000 people
passed through to enter the United States.
By the time Ellis Island closed in 1954,
that number had reached 12 million,
although most of those people arrived by 1924.
Migrants fleeing poverty and persecution
or just looking to start a new life
traveled by private steamship from Eastern
and Southern Europe.
Voyages could take one to two weeks.
Ships divided passengers by wealth and class.
First- and second-class passengers
slept in state rooms and cabins while everyone
else stayed in a space at the bottom
of the ship called steerage.
Steerage passengers paid around $30 per ticket,
but steamship companies would sell as many tickets
as they could.
First- and second-class passengers paid even more.
Because of this, steerage was often
overcrowded and unsanitary with shared sleeping
compartments and no privacy.
But hopeful immigrants stuck it out,
believing it would be worth it for a chance
to live in the United States.
When ships finally arrived in New York Harbor,
health officers boarded and looked for signs of disease
before anyone was allowed to disembark.
Healthy first- and second-class passengers
were processed on the spot and allowed
to enter the United States without setting
foot on Ellis Island.
Everyone else waited, sometimes for days,
for small ferries to take them to the immigration
station for processing.
Migrants walked down the gangplank
with all of their belongings and dropped
their bags in the baggage room on the ground floor.
They then continued up a winding staircase
to the Registry Room, which was upstairs for a reason.
Doctors stood on the second floor
and watched each person climb the stairs
for signs of health problems.
The Registry Room, nearly 20,000 square feet
with 56-foot-tall vaulted ceilings,
was nicknamed the Great Hall for its size.
It was here that most migrants' fate would be decided.
The first step to entry was a six-second physical exam
by a uniformed doctor.
Anyone considered a risk to public health
was marked with a piece of chalk and taken out of the line
to be examined further.
Marks were given for everything from signs of mental illness
to trachoma, a contagious eye infection
that could eventually blind up to 3/4 of those infected.
Those who cleared the medical exam
went on to a legal inspection.
Passengers were checked against a manifest from the ship they
arrived on and asked 29 identifying
questions, often with the help of an interpreter.
If their answers didn't match the information
on the manifest, things like their name, occupation,
and country of origin, they could be detained.
The legal interviews could take as little as two minutes,
and the vast majority of people passed through with ease
and were allowed to enter the country after being issued
landing cards with their name, often misspelled,
and destination.
For others, the stay on Ellis Island was considerably longer.
The few who were detained for either medical or legal reasons
could be on the island overnight or for months.
Once their records were finally reviewed,
they would either be admitted to the US
or sent back to the country they came from free of charge.
But only 2% of the 12 million immigrants
processed at Ellis Island were deported in this way.
After inspection, everyone continued down
a staircase with three aisles.
Those being detained walked down the center aisle.
Those entering New York City or headed north
walked down the left, and those traveling west or south
walked down the right.
At the bottom was a post office, a rail ticket office,
and a place to change money--
for some, family waiting to greet them,
and for all a new life in America.