To protect unsuspecting new immigrants from unscrupulous New Yorkers, in 1855 a state commission established America’s first immigrant processing facility at Castle Garden, a former fort and civic center (today Battery Park). It served as the nation’s gateway for seven million immigrants who arrived over the next thirty-five years in steerage. This image of Castle Garden in a contemporary guide book depicts the facility as it would have appeared to immigrants as they sailed into New York’s harbor.

In 1890 the federal government assumed responsibility for processing new immigrants and closed Castle Garden, which by then was wholly unable to accommodate the increasing numbers pouring into New York. Two years later the federal government opened new facilities on Ellis Island, where immigrants continued to disembark until 1954.