Thread by @marinamaral2

On this day in 1890: Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot.

Photo: Italian Immigrants arrive at Ellis Island, 1916. Lost baggage is the cause of their worried expressions.

In the 35 years before Ellis Island opened, more than eight million immigrants arriving in New York City had been processed by officials at Castle Garden Immigration Depot in Lower Manhattan, just across the bay.

The federal government assumed control of immigration on April 18, 1890, and Congress appropriated $75,000 to construct America's first federal immigration station on Ellis Island.

Artesian wells were dug, and fill material was hauled in from incoming ships' ballast and from construction of New York City's subway tunnels, which doubled the size of Ellis Island to over six acres.

The first station was a three-story-tall structure with outbuildings, built of Georgia Pine, containing the amenities thought to be necessary. Three large ships landed on the first day, and 700 immigrants passed over the docks.

Almost 450,000 immigrants were processed at the station during its first year. On June 15, 1897, a fire of unknown origin turned the wooden structures on Ellis Island into ashes. No loss of life was reported, but most of the immigration records dating back to 1855 were destroyed.

About 1.5 million immigrants had been processed at the first building during its five years of use. Plans were immediately made to build a new, fireproof immigration station.

The present main structure was designed in French Renaissance Revival style and built of red brick with limestone trim. After it opened on December 17, 1900, the facilities proved barely able to handle the flood of immigrants that arrived in the years before World War I.

Between 1905 and 1914, an average of one million immigrants per year arrived in the United States. Immigration officials reviewed about 5,000 immigrants per day during peak times at Ellis Island.

Two-thirds of those individuals emigrated from eastern, southern and central Europe. The peak year for immigration at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed.

The all-time daily high occurred on April 17, 1907, when 11,747 immigrants arrived.

After the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed, which greatly restricted immigration and allowed processing at overseas embassies, the only immigrants to pass through the station were those who had problems with their immigration paperwork, displaced persons, and war refugees.

Generally, those immigrants who were approved spent from two to five hours at Ellis Island. Arrivals were asked 29 questions including name, occupation, and the amount of money carried.

It was important to the American government the new arrivals could support themselves and have money to get started. The average the government wanted the immigrants to have was between 18 and 25 dollars ($600 in 2015 adjusted for inflation).

Those with visible health problems or diseases were sent home or held in the island's hospital facilities for long periods of time.

More than 3,000 would-be immigrants died on Ellis Island while being held in the hospital facilities.

About 2% were denied admission to the U.S. and sent back to their countries of origin for reasons such as having a chronic contagious disease, criminal background, or insanity.

Ellis Island was sometimes known as "The Island of Tears" or "Heartbreak Island" because of those 2% who were not admitted after the long transatlantic voyage.

With the passing of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, the number of immigrants being allowed into the US declined greatly. The passing of the bill ended the era of mass immigration.

After 1924, Ellis Island became primarily a detention and deportation processing station.

The last person to pass through Ellis Island was Norwegian merchant seaman Arne Peterssen in 1954.