Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- an island in upper New York Bay: a former U.S. immigrant examination station.
sandy island in mouth of Hudson River, said to have been called “Gull Island” by local Indians and “Oyster Island” by the Dutch, renamed “Gull Island” after the British took over, then “Gibbet Island” because pirates were hanged there. Sold to Samuel Ellis in 1785, who made it a picnic spot and gave it his name. Sold by his heirs in 1808 to New York State and acquired that year by the U.S. War Department for coastal defenses. Vacant after the American Civil War until the government opened an immigration station there in 1892 to replace Castle Island.
An island in the harbor of New York City. The chief immigration station of the United States was on Ellis Island from 1892 to 1943, a time when millions of people, especially from Europe, came to the United States.
Island in the harbor of New York City, southwest of Manhattan.