The Statue of Liberty National Memorial and Ellis Island - 2018
Updated: 05/07/19
As a couple, we had not been to see the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island. Mary Lou had been as a child, but had very little memory of the visit. We arrived at the the opposite end of Liberty State Park from where we wanted to be. With the telephone help of the campground we made our way to the campground. There had to be a more direct route but we didn't use it.
The route to the Liberty Harbor Campground took us under this set of bridges.
If the train could make it, we could. More about our campsite further down this page.
Next morning, we headed to the ferry dock. We used the National Park Service ferry tour. Mary Lou remembered passing the building on the way into town, now we just had to find it again.
Brick road and unused rails . . .
We parked at the end of the brick road to the historic Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. The building was constructed in 1889 but was abandoned in 1967. The building was badly damaged after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and was repaired and reopened in 2016. Tickets for the ferries to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island are available in this building. Mary Lou ordered our tickets on-line but had trouble printing them so she went inside to get them printed. With tickets in hand, we headed to the tent housing the security screening facility.
Abandoned passenger platforms and tracks terminating at one end of the building.
We
were processed through security/customs in this building prior to board the
ferry
for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
You see the New York City skyline from the dock.
The Statue Cruises, LLC leaves from here, stopping at Ellis Island on its way to and from to the Statue of Liberty.
Ellis Island
The ferry boats took us to both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island . . .
We chose to save Ellis Island for our return trip. We stayed on the boat until we reached the Statue of Liberty.
The
Statue of Liberty . . .
Our round trip tickets included ferry tickets, access to the grounds of Liberty Island, and full access to the Immigration Museum at Ellis Island. We purchased the additional pedestal/museum pass.
The pedestal/museum pass allowed us to visit the Statue of Liberty exhibit and original torch and to go to the observation level at the top of the pedestal to view the statue's interior.
The day started out cloudy, over the day the temperatures warmed up and the sky cleared. Fred had lots of opportunity to get great photographs of Lady Liberty. We selected a representative collection for this page.
Entrance
to the Statue of Liberty is through another security check point . . .
The pedestal level included very detailed construction exhibits.
Certificate issued by NYC . . .
The remains of the 11-point fort are still visible today
as the base on which the Statue of Liberty stands. This photograph is
looking down at one of the points of the fort.
Masonic
corner stone . . .
The statue is 151 feet one inch tall, and 305 feet one inch from the ground to the torch. The copper shell is 3/32 of an inch thick.
These photographs give you an idea of the proportions of the statue.
The stairway to the crown was a steep climb - no elevator available. We did not take advantage of the opportunity to go to the crown. When we exited an elevator in the pedestal, a ranger told Fred to follow her and showed him a glass window in the ceiling with a view of the circular stairs leading to the torch.
Fred had taken his cane, long periods of walking are hard for him. The staff and visitors were very accommodating to us. We were directed to the elevator, saving us walking up and down a lot of steps.
This guy was laying on the Fort Wood ground to make several photographs . . .
Fred made some skyward photographs the easy way - pointing the camera up.
Look closely, those little specks are people visiting the Statue.
The old torch, now inside the pedestal, will be preserved and placed in a newly designed and constructed building.
We chose to purchase our lunch at this Cafe rather than the restaurant on the island. The food was surprisingly good. The view from our bench was of the Statue of Liberty from the back.
After lunch, we boarded the boat and headed to Ellis Island.
Goodbye lovely lady!
Ellis Island with New York City in the background . . .
Ellis Island . . .
Entrance to the museum . . .
The Ellis Island Immigration Museum, located in the Main Building, had many exhibits, a theater, a gift shop, a cafe and other visitor facilities. The museum has three floors of exhibits documenting immigrants' experiences at Ellis Island, as well as the general history of immigration to the United States.
Mary Lou was especially interested in the Registry Room or Great Hall, where immigrants underwent medical and legal examinations. Following the inspections they walked down the "Stairs of Separation". Most boarded New York or New Jersey bound ferries. At the bottom of the stairs, many immigrants met family members or friends at the "Kissing Post".
Registry Room / Grand Hall
The beautiful Guastavino tiled ceiling was installed by 1918.
The rest of Ellis Island buildings - the 1930 Ferry Building, hospital, morgue, contagious disease wards, offices, housing, and maintenance facilities can be viewed only on a guided tour. The Hard Hat Tour must be scheduled in advance, we didn't take that tour.
The
many ships that carried migrants and how the ships were loaded with people . . .
We had not brought the information about the ship that brought Fred's grandfather from England to the United States, so we didn't look for the historical information available. We do have contact information to follow-up later.
People left their homes from many countries to travel to the USA . . .
Waiting on the bench for the return Ferry, we saw this security agent walking
back from someplace. While we knew there was lots of heavy duty security, this was the
first really obvious sign of it.
.
From our ferry boat leaving the Statue of Liberty . . .
.
Below are sights we saw from the Ferry . . .
A sailing boat . . . and . . . other boats were on the river.
One World Trade Center
Chrysler Building Empire
State Building
As we were returning to our HitchHiker after visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, we backtracked our route to the travel park where we left our fifth wheel.
We passed a Rent-A-Scooter rack . . .
The neighborhood on our route was made up of stores, apartments, flats and houses. The neighborhood was not the greatest as indicated by the bars on the porch.
We had to wait for an electric trolley
train crossing the street leading to our travel park to drop off passengers.
We could see the Statue of Liberty from the travel park.
Because we had to park our HH and our truck on our narrow site
or pay an additional $45 per day to park the truck, we parked as far back as possible.
As a result, we could not extend all our slideouts.
We were very tired at the end of our day. Had we not been so tired and the time getting short, we would have done more exploring on Ellis Island. Our recommendation would be to spread the visit over two days, if possible.
For more information visit: www.nps.gov/stli www.nps.gov/elis