A ferry ride from Manhattan drops you into the most emotional place in America

America’s door is still open

You’ve probably heard the name your whole life. Maybe a grandparent mentioned it.

Maybe you found it on a family tree. Ellis Island sits in New York Harbor, a short ferry ride from Lower Manhattan, and for 62 years, it was the first piece of American soil that millions of people ever touched.

The story held in those red brick walls belongs to nearly every American family, and the best of it is still waiting for you to find it.

Two in five Americans trace a family line here

The numbers alone are something to sit with. Between 1892 and 1954, about 12 million immigrants passed through this island.

On the busiest days during peak years, the station processed as many as 12,000 people in a single day.

Today, estimates suggest that as many as two in five Americans can trace their ancestry to someone who walked through that building. You may be one of them, and you may not even know it yet.

Standing in the Great Hall is like stepping back 100 years

The Registry Room, also called the Great Hall, is where the whole experience hits you.

The ceiling arches high overhead, the windows run floor to ceiling, and the restored tile floor spreads out beneath you just as it did when thousands of new arrivals waited here every day to be cleared for entry.

Original wooden benches still line the floor. Historical photographs hang on the walls.

Doctors once watched immigrants climb the stairs to this room, marking the sick with chalk on their clothing.

Trunks, dolls and wedding photos survived the crossing

The museum runs three floors and more than 30 galleries.

You start on the ground floor in the former Baggage Room, where actual trunks and luggage from over a century ago still sit on display.

The Peopling of America Center traces immigration from the 1500s all the way to the present.

Up on the third floor, the Treasures from Home exhibit puts about 2,000 personal items in front of you, things immigrants carried across the ocean, including china dolls, wedding photos and native costumes.

A free movie tells the story better than most textbooks

Before you head into the galleries, stop at the theater.

“Island of Hope, Island of Tears” is a 30-minute documentary that plays free with your admission, and it earns its title.

It covers the Ellis Island story from the ground level, through the voices and faces of the people who lived it.

The museum also has audio tours available free in 12 languages, plus American Sign Language and audio descriptive versions, along with a family-friendly version for visitors of all ages.

Your ancestor’s name might still be on file

The American Family Immigration History Center holds about 65 million searchable passenger records from the Port of New York, covering arrivals from 1820 to 1957.

When you pull up a manifest, you often get the immigrant’s original name, age, occupation, last place of residence and the name of whoever they were joining in America.

One thing the records make clear: inspectors did not change immigrants’ names at Ellis Island. Names were recorded at the port of departure, so an Italian “Giuseppe” arrived in the records as “Giuseppe.”

Nearly a million names stretch along the waterfront

On the eastern edge of the island, the American Immigrant Wall of Honor runs along the shoreline with nearly one million names cut into stainless steel panels, making it one of the largest walls of names anywhere in the world.

The wall honors immigrants of all eras and all ports, not only those who came through Ellis Island. People who arrived before 1892, entered through other cities, or came much more recently all have names here.

A computerized register inside helps you find a specific entry.

29 abandoned buildings sit just steps from the main entrance

Most visitors never realize what’s on the other side of the island.

The south side holds 29 unrestored hospital buildings, abandoned since 1954, that once made up the largest public health service hospital in the country.

Built between 1910 and 1924, the complex treated immigrants who arrived with illness or injury. The wards, the morgue, the laundry, the autopsy room, all of it still stands.

The buildings are closed to the general public, but you can get inside on a guided tour.

Put on a hard hat and walk into the abandoned hospital

Save Ellis Island, a nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, runs 90-minute Hard Hat Tours through the crumbling hospital complex seven days a week.

Small groups move through corridors and decaying rooms that haven’t been touched in decades. You need to be at least 13 years old, and you’ll wear a hard hat the whole time.

Inside, a French artist named JR installed life-sized archival photographs of immigrants directly onto the deteriorating walls, a project called “Unframed — Ellis Island.” The ticket price goes toward preserving these buildings.

The harbor views from the island are like nothing else in New York

Stand behind the Wall of Honor and you can see Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the New Jersey shoreline all at once.

On a clear day, the Freedom Tower rises straight ahead and the water spreads out in every direction around you.

The ferry crossing delivers its own views, with the skyline growing larger as you come in from Battery Park or Liberty State Park.

Most visitors say the ride over is part of what makes the day feel different from anything else in New York.

A $100 million overhaul is rebuilding the museum from the inside out

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation launched a $100 million renovation in 2024 to bring the museum into the next era.

The National Park Service is putting another $17.7 million into the building’s exterior, covering masonry, windows and roofing.

When it’s done, the museum will have 100,000 square feet of reimagined exhibits laid out as a sweeping Timeline of Immigration, along with nearly 100 media pieces including immersive films, soundscapes and interactive displays.

The museum stays open during construction, though some interior sections may be closed or under scaffolding.

History here feels less like a lesson and more like a family reunion

More than 50 million people have visited since the museum opened in 1990, and many of them came looking for something specific. A name on the Wall of Honor.

A ship manifest with a great-grandparent’s handwriting. A face in the Treasures from Home exhibit that looks like someone they know.

Whether your family came through this island or not, the story it holds belongs to the whole country. You walk out of Ellis Island with a clearer sense of what it actually costs people to become American.

Visit Ellis Island in New York Harbor

You can only reach Ellis Island by ferry, and Statue City Cruises is the only authorized provider. Ferries leave from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan and from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Your ferry ticket covers round-trip service with stops at both Liberty Island and Ellis Island, plus access to the museums on both islands.

The museum is open daily from 9:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Audio tours are free with admission.

Hard Hat Tours of the abandoned hospital must be booked separately through Save Ellis Island, and participants must be at least 13.

Buy tickets in advance, especially in summer, and give yourself at least half a day to see both islands.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• Mamdani signals he may overrule the NYPD commissioner on major policy calls
• Mamdani administration approves up to $1.86 billion hotel contract for homeless family sheltering in New York City
• A $1,600 unexplained hotel charge in New York City raises billing concerns for travelers