A family travels for 21 days on a boat that eventually lands on Ellis Island. They gaze at the Statue of Liberty before they are shuffled into lines. Before they start their new lives, a staff of American doctors must check them for any contagious diseases at the island's hospital.
For many immigrants, this was their first impression of the United States during the first waves of immigration in the 20th century.
Roughly 1.25 million people (usually of lower economic status) — 10% of Ellis Island arrivals — passed through the hospital from 1901 to 1924. The rest were quickly diagnosed as healthy enough to enter the US and start their lives in New York City.
Beginning in 1924, the complex served as a psychiatric hospital for soldiers. It was later turned into an internment camp for an estimated 8,000 German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during WWII. The building was abandoned for decades after that, but started undergoing a $6 million restoration in 1990 thanks to nonprofit donations. It finally opened to the public in 2014.
I recently toured some of the wards with the New York Adventure Club, an organization that hosts tours of hidden places around the state. Ellis Island's Immigration Museum also conducts tours, but the NYAC gave me a rare look inside the contagious disease wing.
Here's what it was like.
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To reach Ellis Island, we took a ferry from the southernmost tip of New York City.
The hospital, a massive complex consisting of 11 pavilions, opened in 1901. It welcomed immigrants from all over.
When we arrived, we met our tour guide, John McInnes, and put on hard hats.
"This is your last chance to turn back," he said.
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