Of all the iconic NYC landmarks, the Statue of Liberty is the one I ALWAYS dreamed of visiting. We finally got to use the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island portion of our City Passes on Tuesday. We went down, all the way to the end of the line in Manhattan with my sister (who had never been to Ellis Island after living in NYC for 7 years!). Excitement.
The subway station at the end of the line: Battery Park.
I absolutely LOVED riding the subway around Manhattan. Every station is a little different. This station was a lovely little art museum by itself.
The weird thing about this station is that after we got back, and Hurricane Sandy happened less than a week later (!)...we saw pictures of this subway station completely under water. :(
we saw this park on the way from the subway to Battery Park...just proof that we were thinking about our other kids back home!
That, and I found it interesting that all the playgrounds were fenced in with these signs on them. I wish playgrounds were like that everywhere. It would be much easier not too loose a wandering toddler!
At Battery Park, we ducked into this old Fort called Clinton's Castle so my sis could buy her ticket. I was struck by the contrast of old and new. New towering above the old. Old sandwiched between the new. That beautiful, old house in the middle of two modern office buildings is the James Watson House.
inside Castle Clinton // Old & New
The view from/of Battery Park
This statue was right off the pier where we were waiting in line for the ferry. The rescue. Hmm...
Waiting in line for the ferry, our first pictures of Lady Liberty and Ellis Island.
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| The different views, angles and details of the Statue. I LOVED seeing her up close. I must say she is a lot smaller than I had imagined. We really wanted to take the tour up into the statue itself, but it turns out that the tour was closed until November. :( But after Hurricane Sandy blew through {the WEEK after we left!!}, the ferry to the Statue and Ellis Island are closed indefinitely. So we feel pretty lucky that we were able to squeeze in this trip before the devastation. |
On the Ferry and arriving at Ellis Island.
some of the views from the ferry...terribly sorry about the splotches on the lens! I think I took care of it.
We couldn't spent all day in the museum at Ellis Island. It is all about the Immigrants who came to America. Anyone who came in between certain time periods, came through this big building at Ellis Island. It so happens that our grandmother, great aunt and grandfather (Elfrieda, Johanna and Fritz) came through Ellis Island from Eastern Germany (now part of Poland) on their way to Salt Lake City, Utah between WWI and WWII. It was fascinating to take the tour and follow in the footsteps of our family. Literally.
And I DO mean literally! This is the stair case where the people would leave after being processed...and the stairs have grooves worn in them from all the people who passed through here! The stair on the right was for people who planned to stay in NYC, the stair on the left was for people who were heading elsewhere in the country, and the stair in the middle was for people who were not allowed to enter the USA.
Just a few panoramic shots of the GREAT room where the people had to wait in order to be processed:
We ate lunch in the cafeteria with a smiley baby.
...and we were PROCESSED! What a cool place! The workers there are so enthusiastic.
Here's an example of one of the processing labels on the left,
and information about how to find out if your ancestors passed through Ellis Island on the right.
Here are some of the interesting things I saw in the museum:
the language tree, with many words we use today and the countries they originated from
a picture of young women being checked for a certain contagious disease. If they had it, they were sent back to their country of origin.
looking down from the building
walking around the building
building detail
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| Beautiful skies...getting back on the ferry and heading back to Manhattan. We would've stayed longer, but the museum closed. :( |
1 comments:
That's so awesome! It's one sight in NYC that I've always wanted to visit but never have. It was fun to visit it through your blog, but I think I'm going to have to go on my own someday. :)