Will Climate Change Swamp the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island?

Two Become One

Liberty and Ellis Islands—both sitting ducks in a harbor vulnerable to rising sea levels—are linked in modern melting pot mythology, but their origins are distinct.

France proposed giving a statue to honor the United States in 1865, though the statue wasn't completed for 21 years. The gift celebrated the Revolutionary War alliance of the two countries and was France's way of supporting the ideals of freedom the new country espoused. Sculptor Auguste Bartholdi was also looking to create a sculpture to rival the Colossus of Rhodes. In 1871 he handpicked Lady Liberty's home, a 12-acre island in New York Harbor—all the better to see her.

Ellis Island's origins were less poetic. In the early 1800s, a fort was built on the island to defend the harbor and to keep the British from conscripting American soldiers. In the late 1880s, long after such dangers had passed, New Yorkers began complaining loudly about the risks posed by the 10,000 pounds of ammunition still housed at the fort, so it was converted into an office for processing immigrants entering the United States. Ellis Island's second life as a way station to the American dream began in 1892, six years after Liberty opened her doors.

Five years later Ellis's wooden edifice was destroyed by fire. The building rose again, built of hardier stuff—red brick trimmed in limestone and granite—and reopened in 1900.

On an average day, Ellis Island workers processed 8,000 to 10,000 immigrants. The record of 11,747 people was set on April 17, 1907. More than 12 million immigrants passed through over its two decades of operation.

In 1925, U.S. consulates took over the job of immigration. Ellis Island became by turns a deportation center, U.S. Public Health Service hospital, a Coast Guard facility, and an internment camp for Germans, Italians, and Japanese during World War II. By 1954, the U.S. government had run out of uses for Ellis Island and closed it. "People were coming into places other than New York, and the immigration laws were looser," says Luchsinger. It didn't reopen as a historic site until the 1990s. Only 17 ceiling tiles had been lost in the interim.

The Statue of Liberty was declared a national monument in 1924. In 1965, Ellis Island was folded into the Park Service site.