Ellis Island

Our trip to Ellis Island was not as long and difficult as that of the the 12 million immigrants who entered the US here, but it had its moments. The plan was to take the subway to Battery Park - see below. Unfortunately, we managed (once again) to resolutely head in the wrong direction - heading west and south instead of east and north. Pretty good, considering the landmarks we DO KNOW! So, we took a cab and got in line - Labor Day weekend (!)

Battery park

After about 10 minutes we did have enough sense to realize that we needed to get tickets for the ferry FIRST. Birgit held the boarding line and I enjoyed the ticket line. But eventually we did make it to Ellis Island, just like those who came before us.

We passed the Statue of Liberty on the ferry, but did not go on land. It was way too crowded and the next possible time to go up would have been next day - get in line at 7 am. Instead we stayed on the ferry.

Ellis Island from the ferry     

The weather was glorious - Hurricane Earl had blown through and cooled New York off and as a bonus took most of the awful humidity with him.

We spent quite a few hours in the Ellis Island museum- it contains absolutely fascinating histories of the people migration to the US; the hardship people endured both before and often after they reached New York. And how sentiment toward immigrants has remained pretty much the same throughout the history of the US. Best summarized by "I am here, pull up the drawbridge"

A tantalizing look at the skyline of lower Manhattan from the island. Back in the day it looked different, but for the anxious immigrants no doubt just as tantalizing.

It was also very interesting to see that a lot of the rhetoric regarding immigration has remained the same - on the one hand "Close the border, protect our native land against the foreign hordes" and on the other hand the need for people to settle the empty (of our kind of people at least) spaces, as exemplified by the poster below which exhorts immigrants to come to California where the lucky immigrant could get some of the 43 million acres held by the federal government. "California is a garden of Eden ..." to quote Woody.

Birgit took a number of excellent pictures of the lower Manhattan skyline from the ferry - a truly immpressive sight.

 And then we were back on land - tired, hungry and eager to THIS time take the subway. We found it - no problem. We  had mastered the art of acquiring a ticket. Excellent! I slid  the ticket through the card reader, pushed the bar and BRRR  - no go. Birgit got through right away and patiently stood on  the other side watching me buy two more tickets and being  denied entry twice more. This was not GOOD! Finally she  came back and once again we took a cab. Stay tuned to see  if we were lucky the next day.

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