Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour

Last month I went on the Hard Hat Tour of the abandoned hospital complex in Ellis Island, which has been closed and abandoned for 60 years. Most of these buildings have slowly fallen into disrepair. The tour is offered by Save Ellis Island, the organization formed to raise the necessary funds and oversee the rehabilitation, preservation and adaptive re-use of the unrestored buildings located primarily on the south side of Ellis Island.

Save Ellis Island’s mission is to preserve the historic hospital buildings on Ellis Island. Our goal is to encourage an understanding of immigration in a globalized world, a story that has always been a part of American history. Our vision is to engage the public in historic preservation by showcasing the rehabilitation and preservation of an American icon – Ellis Island.

Save Ellis Island, in partnership with the National Park Service, will rehabilitate and re-dedicate these buildings for public education and enjoyment – a place for civic discussion of issues that define our humanity, the constant movement of peoples around the globe and the impact of this travel on mutual respect, cultural tolerance and global health and well being.

The Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital is the United States’ first public health hospital. It opened in 1902 and served as a detention facility for new immigrants who were deemed unfit to enter the United States after their arrival. Immigrants would either be released from the hospital to go on to a new life in America or sent back to their home countries.  

The hospital complex consisted of 29 buildings spread over 2 islands in New York Harbor. The islands were man-made, using excavated dirt and concrete from the New York City subway system.

Here's a view of the hospital complex from the ferry on my way to the island.

Of the 12 million immigrants who entered America through Ellis Island, 1.2 million failed the initial medical inspection performed by the Public Health Service doctors, and were taken along the covered corridors to the hospitals for further evaluation.

Twelve million immigrants were processed through the Ellis Island Immigration Center during its years of operation. Every immigrant had to go through a thirty-second health inspection upon arrival, although the inspections were often directed more at the immigrants who arrived from second or third class. Tens of thousands of immigrants, or one out of every five, received a chalk mark on their clothing, signaling a health deficiency. These immigrants were often sent on to the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital to be detained until they recovered or were deemed too sick to enter the United States, in which case they would be sent back to their home countries.

The curved corridor above leads to the laundry room, the first stop of the tour. Much of the original equipment used were still in place, where more than 3,000 pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized daily.

To prevent infection from spreading, all the hospital buildings and structures were connected by covered corridors. 

We also visited the hospital morgue.

The main building of the hospital originally consisted of 120 beds and was eventually expanded to three times that size. Additionally, there were four operating rooms and a morgue. An autopsy amphitheater in the hospital, which contained an eight-cadaver refrigerator, became a well-known teaching hall, drawing medical observers from teaching hospitals in the United States and Europe.

As part of the tour opening, an art exhibit, "Unframed –Ellis Island," by renowned artist JR is on display throughout the hospital complex. The exhibit features life size historic photographs of Ellis Island immigrants installed on 22 interior walls. 

“The idea is to respect the architecture,” JR said, moving past a wheat-pasted tableau where a woman’s hat hovers amid tree limbs seen through a broken window. “I let the walls decide what part of the image should appear.”

When we went to the kitchen, its large range hood has been converted by JR's work into the body of an upside-down ship. 

JR's work is not limited to walls, you can also see them on the floor, cabinets and sinks inside the hospital complex.

Our tour guide in front of another of JR's work in one of the rooms at the hospital complex.

All the furniture and fixtures are long gone, the paint cracked and peeling, the windows boarded up, and dust on the floor, but there is beauty in abandoned places.

All of these rooms are interconnected by hallways and covered corridors. 

Some parts of the hospital, especially the ones closest to the water have been battered by the elements. The island was very much affected during Hurricane Sandy.

Looking out from one of the buildings to another building at the complex. New York City just had another snowstorm a few days before my tour date.

At a certain point along one of the hallways, Lady Liberty peeks out in between two hospital buildings. Ahh hope!

The hospital complex also houses nurses and doctors quarters. This room was once the living quarters of one of the hospital doctors and his family.

The tour did not cover the upper floors of the buildings. This particular area is still part of the doctor's quarters.

Here's another one of those endless corridors connecting the structures.

Then it's back to where we started.  The white stuff on the photo below was where water level reached during hurricane Sandy. There's a lot of work involved in these structures.

The grounds of Ellis Island has a great view of Lady Liberty. Caught this pair when I went out of the main building of the Immigration Center. Caption the photo!

On the other side you could see the lower Manhattan skyline. Of course the view was completely different during the time the hospital was in operation, but really, nothing beats this view.

The main building of the Immigration Center houses the Registry Room.

Jostling three abreast, the immigrants made their way up the steep flight of stairs and into the great hall of the Registry Room. Although many did not know it, the inspection process had already begun. Scanning the moving line for signs of illness, Public Health Service doctors looked to see if anyone wheezed, coughed, shuffled, or limped as they climbed the steep ascent. Children were asked their name to make sure they weren't deaf or dumb, and those that looked over two-years-old were taken from their mothers' arms and made to walk. As the line moved forward, doctors had only a few seconds to examine each immigrant, checking for sixty symptoms, from anemia to varicose veins, which might indicate a wide variety of diseases, disabilities, and physical conditions.

That was interesting, click on the link for more info on the immigration process in Ellis Island.

The main building of the Ellis Island Immigration Center was designed in French Renaissance Revival style and built of red brick with limestone trim. Architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Alciphron Boring received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the building's design and constructed the building at a cost of $1.5 million

When it opened on December 17, 1900, officials estimated 5,000 immigrants per day would be processed. However, the facilities proved to be able to barely handle the flood of immigrants that arrived in the years just before World War I. Writer Louis Adamic came to America from Slovenia in southeastern Europe in 1913 and described the night he and many other immigrants slept on bunk beds in a huge hall. Lacking a warm blanket, the young man "shivered, sleepless, all night, listening to snores" and dreams "in perhaps a dozen different languages".

After the immigration station closed in November 1954, the buildings fell into disrepair and were all but abandoned. Attempts at redeveloping the site were unsuccessful until its landmark status was established, Ellis Island was proclaimed a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument in October 1965.

The restoration and adaptive use of the Beaux-Arts Main Building had a construction budget of $150 million, the money was raised by a campaign organized by a political fundraiser. The building reopened on September 10, 1990.

So much history in these buildings, I'm so glad I joined the Hard Hat Tour. It's not much but its my little contribution to save Ellis Island.

Ellis Island was once known as an “Island of Hope” for immigrants who launched new lives in America, but has also been called the “Island of Tears” by newcomers who were turned back to their homelands or separated from their families at the processing center. The historic hospitals, quarantine wards, and support buildings on the south side of the island retain their integrity and haunting beauty. Preservation experts and historians feel strongly that they must be protected and opened to the public. 

Here's a map of the island so you'll have an idea where the tour took us:

If any of you could get the chance, I would definitely recommend the tour. Not only could you see the hospital structures now opened to the public after 60 years, you could also learn about the life of immigrant patients, see JR's site-specific works, and at the same time contribute a little bit to the preservation and restoration of the Ellis Island hospital complex.

Here's the link to buy tickets for the Hard Hat Tour.

Check out the rest of my photos of the tour on Flickr: Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour

Floyd Bennett Field to Fort Tilden via Marine Parkway Bridge

After our trek in Dead Horse Bay which I wrote about in a previous blog, we continued our walk towards Floyd Bennett Field.

Floyd Bennett Field was New York City's first municipal airport, later a naval air station, and is now a park. While no longer used as an operational commercial, military or general aviation airfield, a section is still used as a helicopter base by the New York Police Department (NYPD). Located in southeast Brooklyn, the field was created by connecting Barren Island and a number of smaller marsh islands to the mainland by filling the channels between them with sand pumped from the bottom of Jamaica Bay. The airport was named after famed aviator and Medal of Honor recipient Floyd Bennett, a Brooklyn resident at the time of his death. It was dedicated on June 26, 1930, and officially opened on May 23, 1931.

Here's an aerial view of Floyd Bennett Field from Wikipedia. 

Photo uploaded by Centpacrr at en.wikipedia.

In the above photo, you can see Dead Horse Bay on the right and since we walked to Floyd Bennett Field by following the shoreline, we were able to visit only the southern part of the former airport. This link has a great article about the history of the former airport.

Since it is no longer used as an operational commercial, military or general aviation airfield, Floyd Bennett Field has a lot of abandoned buildings, like this one complete with plants growing out of its roof.

We also passed by one of the buildings used by the United States Park Police (USPP).

The USPP shares law enforcement jurisdiction in all lands administered by the National Park Service with a force of National Park Service Rangers tasked with the same law enforcement powers and responsibilities. The agency also provides protection for visiting dignitaries.

There was one point where we could go no further as we've reached the boundary for the New York City Police Department (NYPD) space.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) also has divisions located on the historic former airfield. The department's aviation base, with its fleet of Bell 412 and Agusta A119 Koala helicopters, is housed in space leased from the National Park Service that was once the United States Coast Guard Air Station Brooklyn, and is also now headquarters for the New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit.

We also reached an area with a unique obstacle course. I don't know if this is still in use but the buildings around this structure are all abandoned.

The Floyd Bennett Field Archery Range had a lot of young archers honing their skills when we passed by.

Here's the view looking back from where we were walking.

Up close, that water tower looked like an all-white soccer ball .. cool!

Sometimes, a field of wildflowers and some abandoned structures make a nice photo.

Abandoned places have their charms.

As part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, Floyd Bennett Field has a lot of activities offered. One of this is a remote control raceway, the Floyd Bennett Raceway RC Club. We stopped for a while and enjoyed watching the cars zipped by so fast.

On our way out of the former airport, we saw this directional signs. It seems we missed going to the Historic Aircraft Hangar area. It was a bummer but we needed to walk on if we wanted to reach Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge before it closes. Hopefully, I can go back and see the historic aircraft the next time I'm in Floyd Bennett Field.

I remember we passed by the former airport's Administration Building on our way to Dead Horse Bay. It can easily be seen from Flatbush Avenue.

Former "Administration Building" (Building 1) served as passenger terminal, air traffic control, baggage depot, freight receiving–shipping, and accommodations for air crews. The tower on top was added when the facility was transferred to the Navy.

This was just a quick snap as we didn't stop to look at the building. Scouting NY has some great close-up shots of the Administration Building details, as well as the hangars.

From Floyd Bennett Field, we made our way along Flatbush Avenue towards the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge.

The Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge (originally and often referred to as the Marine Parkway Bridge) is a vertical-lift bridge in New York City, that crosses Rockaway Inlet and connects the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, with the Marine Parkway to Floyd Bennett Field, Flatbush Avenue, and the Marine Park neighborhood in Brooklyn. Opened on July 3, 1937, it carries four motor traffic lanes, and a footpath on the western edge. Cyclepaths along both sides of the Parkway connect to the Shore Parkway Greenway and to Flatbush Avenue. The operation of this bridge includes the maintenance of the Marine Parkway from the toll plaza to Jacob Riis Park. Though a city-owned and operated bridge, it connects two parts of Gateway National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park System: Floyd Bennett Field and Jacob Riis Park. The bridge is designated as New York State Route 901B, an unsigned reference route.

 

The bridge has a great view of Dead Horse Bay, where we walked before going to Floyd Bennett Field. I wrote about our trek there in a previous blog. It looked beautiful from the bridge walkway.

The total length of the bridge is a little more than 4,000 feet. Here's a photo of the bridge walkway, it is shared by both bikers and pedestrians.

This looks like the control room of the bridge. Per Wiki, part of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 was filmed from a tollbooth camera on this bridge.

Looking down at the water, I saw some round structures. I have no idea what these are but it was interesting to see them.

Somebody scrawled a warning along the walkway. Great advice!

The waters beneath the bridge has been known to be a great fishing spot and we saw a lot of men fishing from their boats when we crossed the bridge.

Near the end of the walkway we saw what looked like stones being quarried from the bridge area. Or was a different kind of activity being done? I really have no idea.

We've finally reached the end of the bridge and I saw some stickers on one of the fence-like structures. It seems street artist Cost was also at the Rockaways at one time.

There was this old trolley car traveling along Rockaway Point Boulevard when we reached the road, it was great to see it.

We also dropped by Fort Tilden but only just the area near Beach 169th Street. Too bad we missed the batteries. Hopefully, I can go back and take pictures the next time I'm in the area.

Fort Tilden was established about the time of American involvement in World War I in 1917. It is named after Samuel J. Tilden, one-term governor of New York State and Democratic Presidential candidate in 1876. The fort first served as a coastal artillery installation and ended its service as a Nike Hercules and Nike Ajax missile site. Fort Tilden remained an Army installation until 1974 when it was decommissioned and turned over to the National Park Service, and made part of the Gateway National Recreation Area

This used to be the military chapel in Fort Tilden. Currently it is part of the Rockaway!, an art installation hosted by the National Park Service, which partners the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, MoMa PS1 and the Rockaway Artists Alliance.

Thanks to a loan from the Museum of Modern Art, Fort Tilden's military chapel - which was damaged by Sandy and is now being restored - will showcase one of the highlights from the MoMA collection: The Forty Piece Motet by Janet Cardiff, a spatialized adaptation of a sacred 16th century motet created by recording each member of a choir individually and giving each voice its own speaker.

It was just a quick stop in Fort Tilden as we still had some places to go to. As we made our way towards Jacob Riis Park, Hook and Ladder #137 firetruck passed us by.

I will write about our trek to Jacob Riis Park and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in my next blog. It was a pleasure to walk around Floyd Bennett Field and Fort Tilden and cross the Marine Parkway Bridge. These places are so rich in history, I hope the government agencies will preserve them. I hope to be back one of these days, there is so much I haven't seen and covered. For now, I hope you enjoyed seeing these places through my eyes and photos.

For the rest of my photos, here's the album on Flickr: Floyd Bennett Field/Marine Parkway Bridge/Fort Tilden

Dead Horse Bay

Last month I joined a meet-up for a trek around the Jamaica Bay area. The first part of our walk was in Dead Horse Bay, a small body of water in Brooklyn managed by the National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

How did Dead Horse Bay got its name? The land sits at the western edge of a marshland once dotted by more than two dozen horse-rendering plants, fish oil factories and garbage incinerators. From the 1850's until the 1930's, the carcasses of dead horses and other animals from New York City streets were used to manufacture such items as glue and fertilizer. Once parts of the horses were removed, boiled and chopped up, they were simply dumped into the water. As the automobile grew in popularity, the number of horse carcasses in Dead Horse Bay dwindled but then city began dumping its garbage in the area. This landfill was capped after the refuse of the 1920's and 1930's filled the marsh. In the 1950's, the cap burst, spewing the artifacts of a different era onto the beach. Now glass bottles, shoe leather, plastic toys, old bones and handguns lie along the shoreline.

We took the Q35 bus from Flatbush, got off at the Gateway Sports stop, and from there walked about a mile to the nearly hidden entrance of the trail. Trees and plants abound but the pathway is clear. 

We took the left most fork in the trail and at the end were rewarded with this beautiful sight.

Stepping out of the vegetation, the view was even more gorgeous!

But let not the view fool you! The beach is littered with thousands of broken bottle pieces, some plastic containers and even abandoned boats.

That bridge above is the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge that connects Marine Park, Flatbush Avenue and Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn with the Rockaway peninsula in Queens.

Walking along the shore I nearly stumbled on something you'd hardly ever see in the city -- a horseshoe crab!

There was also a part in the area where some sea grass grow, I was a little surprised to see it.

Further to this grassy part is an area full of rocks ..

.. and of course, some trash.

The place may have been a garbage dump before but looking up from that rocky area, the sky that morning was kind of showing off.

I was checking out some articles about Dead Horse Bay and they have lots of pictures of the bottles along the shore. When we were there, I only saw a few and mostly just broken pieces along the shore. I was thinking most of these items were dragged back to the sea during superstorm Sandy.

In addition, it was already high tide when we got there and most of the bottles were covered by the water. When the waves come you could almost hear a tinkling sound as the bottles move with the current.

There is a tree in Dead Horse Bay where some people hang bottles. Sometimes there are a lot of bottles hanging but on the day of our visit, there were only a few moving like windchimes.

We finally left the place close to noontime as we still had to cover a lot of places. Along the way back we passed by remnants of a pier.

And this looked like the ruins of a boat.

At one point my attention was caught by some sea gulls, it must be feeding time!

Further on is another ship ruin, the pieces have stuck on what looked like hardened tar.

We then continued to proceed to the next part of our walk, Floyd Bennett Field. The former airport is located across Dead Horse Bay, with Flatbush Avenue dissecting the area which ultimately leads to the Marine Parkway Bridge. We passed underneath the bridge to go to Floyd Bennett Field.

The area by the Marine Parkway Bridge has been known to be a great fishing spot. This angler must have been feeling hot that summer day. Well, whatever it takes just to land the big one!

Did you enjoy our trip to Dead Horse Bay? Floyd Bennett Field was our second stop and we ended the day in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. I hope to share with you all these adventures in my next blog.

Here's one last pic, a panorama taken from Dead Horse Bay. Enjoy!

For more pics taken at Dead Horse Bay, here's my album on Flickr - Dead Horse Bay, 06.28.14

And a map of the area ..