Ellis Island and some history of New York

Ellis Island 

We visited Ellis Island on Saturday 14 October after The Statue of Liberty. The island used to be an immigration center during the years 1892-1954. Now the building on the island is used as a US immigration museum. There is a lot to see in the museum, including history and information about today’s immigration. There was an electronic map that showed the number of immigrants from each country of the world and where they are living in the US. The number of Finnish immigrants in the US is around 450 000 and most of them live in Michigan, Minnesota and California. There is also a system where one can search the passenger database for possible relatives who had immigrated to America when Ellis Island was in use. Ellis Island is located in Upper New York Bay and north of the Liberty Island.  

                                            NYC history  in brief

It all started in 1542 when Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed to the area. The name New York came later when the British took the city in the year 1664. In 1783 New York was an independent city in the United States of America.
New York grew fast. Many immigrants came to the Ellis Island and through there to New York. In the 1900’s New York became one of the world’s largest cities. During the 1900’s the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and later the World Trade Center were built. They used to be the world’s tallest skyscrapers. The United Nations Headquarters was finished in 1952. The year 2001 was tragic, when the WTC towers got hit by terrorists. In 1904 New York subway’s first line was started. Traffic has always been a problem in New York. The population of New York City has been growing very quickly and is still growing. Without the subway the city could not function.