Press

For tens of thousands of immigrants, making it to the Ferry Building on Ellis Island was the next-to-last step on a long, arduous journey to America.

ELLIS ISLAND, N.J. — On a chilly afternoon, wind and rain whip through the broken windows of a small, dark room where people with tuberculosis once stared out at the Statue of Liberty and wondered if they would ever begin a new life in America.

With victory still fresh in their border war with New York, the top elected officials of New Jersey planned to journey to Ellis Island — that's Ellis Island, New Jersey — for a bit of ceremonial gloating on the Fourth of July.