Marlene and I toured Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty on Thursday. These sites were the main reasons we stopped in the New York area – Marlene had the Statue of Liberty on her bucket list. In fact, Marlene had never been to New York before, so we planned to devote one day to Ellis Island and the Statue of Libery and the other day to New York City. That would knock both items off of her bucket list.
Both Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty are on islands which can be accessed by ferry from Liberty State Park in New Jersey. We drove there and bought tickets in the morning. We got the senior discount – $18 instead of $24. And we opted for the additional cost of “pedestal access” which gave us entry into the statue pedestal and museum. That add-on raised the total cost for each to $18.30. That’s right – the admission to the pedestal was 30 cents. I can’t imagine why they bother to have two different prices. Why would anyone not pay 30 cents to access the pedestal? The pedestal is actually a bit taller than the statue – 154 feet to the statue’s 151 feet – and is pretty interesting in its own right. Absolutely worth 30 cents.
The tickets were sold at the old Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal building which was a long walk from the ferry (probably a tenth of a mile). The ferry ride to Ellis Island was only about 10 minutes. We spent nearly two hours touring the building (only one building – the one used to process immigrants from 1892 to 1925 – has been renovated and converted into a museum). There are many displays and a 25-minute film about the processing of the immigrants. Quite interesting.
We boarded the ferry again for the trip to the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island. This ride was just a bit longer – about 15 minutes. Once on Liberty Island we could have gotten a free audio tour, but we passed. We walked around the island a bit, taking in both the views of the city and the statue before entering the pedestal.
We were on Liberty Island about 2 hours. We walked to the top of the pedestal – 195 steps (shorter than the Bunker Hill Monument). Everyone else took the elevator. We also spent some time in the museum.
A long day, but very interesting. And the weather was beautiful. Clear and about 75 degrees. A good day.