Ellis Island Immigrant Station formally opens in New York Harbor 130 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Jan 1 1892)


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(New Year’s Day, Friday, January 1, 1892, shortly after an 8:00 a.m. EST inspection)Ellis Island, a federally-owned island in New York Harbor that was the busiest immigrant inspection station in the United States, formally opened today.

Its first immigrant was Annie Moore, a 14-year-old girl from Cork, Ireland, who was traveling with her two brothers to meet their parents in the U.S.

On the first day, almost 700 immigrants passed over the docks. Over the next year, over 400,000 immigrants were processed at the station.

The processing procedure included a series of medical and mental inspection lines, and through this process, some 1 percent of potential immigrants were deported

From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there under federal law.

Today, it is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and is accessible to the public only by ferry. The north side of the island is the site of the main building, now a national museum of immigration. The south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is open to the public only through guided tours.