Facts About Ellis Island

Ellis Island stands as a powerful symbol for the nation's open door to freedom. The federal immigration station opened its doors in 1892 and continued to welcome immigrants for 62 years.

Here are five facts about Ellis Island.

1. Before 1890, states were in charge of regulating immigration — not the federal government, according to the Liberty Ellis Foundation.

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2. When New York's Castle Garden immigration station could not handle the number of immigrants coming through the state, the federal government intervened to create Ellis Island, the foundation said.

3. The first person to come through the new Ellis Island facility and be processed was Annie Moore, a teenager from Ireland, who arrived with two brothers.

4. About 12 million immigrants used Ellis Island before it closed in 1954. The number of immigrants coming to the U.S. dropped off from record numbers seen from 1900 to 1914, when in 1921, Congress passed the Immigrant Quota Act, and later, the National Origins Act of 1924, according to History.com. Those measures put a limit on how many immigrants could come to the U.S. and also set quotas on nationalities.

5. Ellis Island opened for visitors and tourists in 1976. In 2001, records there were opened, allowing people to search for family members who immigrated to America. Some estimates suggest that 40 percent of all U.S. citizens today have at least one ancestor who came through Ellis Island, History.com noted.

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