Ellis Island
About 12 million immigrants were processed here from 1892 to 1954 — by one estimate, two-fifths of Americans descend from them.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk New York offline.
Once the busiest immigrant inspection station in the US. The north side is now a national museum of immigration; the south side, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, opens only through guided tours.
What to look for
- The Wall of Honor on the northern half — the former Island 1 — beside the main building
- The great lawn on the south side, made in the 1920s by infilling the ferry basin between islands 2 and 3
- The sea wall of concrete and granite — over 7,700 linear feet — that holds back the reclaimed land
Reachable only by ferry; the southern hospital buildings are seen through guided tours, not open general admission.
Ellis Island is one of 38 sights worth the detour in New York, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the New York pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in New York
- Statue of LibertyFrance's gift to the U.S.: a crowned, robed woman raising a torch over New York Harbor, long read as a welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
- Empire State BuildingRide up to the 86th- or 102nd-floor deck and look straight down on Midtown Manhattan.
- World Trade Center & 9/11 MemorialTwo reflecting pools now sit in the exact footprints where the Twin Towers stood until September 11, 2001.
- Wall StreetUnder 2,000 feet of pavement that stands in for all of American finance — named for a wall that hasn't existed since 1699.
- The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art)1.5 million works under one roof, from Sumerian stone to modern American rooms — a day here barely scratches it.
- Central ParkThe most visited urban park in the US — an estimated 42 million visits a year — built by hand on the razed land of a Black settlement, Seneca Village.