I was at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty on Tuesday. I've been there a few times before. Based on my previous experience it seems like more Americans (and others) are discovering that you can get to the statue much more easily from New Jersey than from New York City. On previous visits the crowd on the Jersey side was non-existant, but this time there were quite a few people there.
One advantage to using Liberty State Park in Jersey City as the starting point for a visit to the statue is that the visitor center and ferry ticket window is in a restored train station. The train station is the one used by all immigrants who came through Ellis Island bound for points west of New York. I know that most Americans whose family members came through Ellis Island believe their ancestors went into Manhattan to start their lives in America, but most of the immigrants never saw New York. They were ferried to Jersey City, NJ and caught a train elsewhere.
Maybe it was my recent discovery of my grandfather's Ellis Island record or maybe it was because my children were a lot older this time, but I enjoyed Ellis Island a lot more than I did on my last visit. I spent more time on Ellis Island than I did at the Statue, which was not the case on my last visit.
One aspect of the Ellis Island museum that surprised me is how little mention the Irish get there. Okay, Annie Moore has a corner all to herself, but for the most part the Irish seem to hardly exist at Ellis Island. I don't know the numbers, but I doubt more English and Welsh immigrants came through Ellis Island than did Irish, but that's not the impression the exhibition gives. Or maybe I was just too sensitive to an imagined slight. Regardless, I wouldn't want anyone to think that this slight - real or imagined - ruined my visit.
And then there's the statue. Last time we went there we couldn't get in to the monument because we were too late. This time we made it to the top of the pedastal, but we couldn't get to the crown, which reopened about a month ago. You have to book those tickets well in advance and we didn't.
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