New York Harbor that contains a museum and former

Geography and access
Ellis Island is in Upper New York Bay within New York Harbor, east of Liberty State Park and north of Liberty Island. While most of the island is in Jersey City, New Jersey, a small section is an exclave of New York City.^[6][7] The island has a land area of 27.5 acres (11.1 ha), much of which is from land reclamation. The 2.74-acre (1.11 ha) natural island and contiguous areas comprise the 3.3 acres (1.3 ha) that are part of New York, and are located on the northern portion of the present-day island. The artificial land is part of New Jersey.^[7][8][9] The island has been owned and administered by the federal government of the United States since 1808 and operated by the National Park Service since 1965.^[10]
Land expansion
Initially, much of the Upper New York Bay's western shore consisted of large tidal flats with vast oyster beds, which were a major source of food for the Lenape. Ellis Island was one of three "Oyster Islands", the other two being Liberty Island and the now-destroyed Black Tom Island.^[11][12][13] The federal government began expanding the island by land reclamation in the late 19th century to accommodate its immigration station, and the expansions continued in stages until 1934.^[14] The fill was acquired from the ballast of ships as well as material excavated from the first line of the New York City Subway.^[15] The fill also came from the railyards of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey. It eventually obliterated the oyster beds, engulfed one of the Oyster Islands, and brought the shoreline much closer to the others.^[16]
The current island is shaped like a "C" with two landmasses of equal size on the northeastern and southwestern sides, separated by what was formerly a ferry pier.^[17] This was originally three separate islands. The current north side, formerly called island 1, contained the original island and the fill around it. The current south side was composed of island 2, created in 1899, and island 3, created in 1906. Separating the three numbered landmasses were two ferry docks facing eastward.^[17][18] The fill was retained with a system of wood piles and cribbing, and later encased with more than 7,700 linear feet of concrete and granite sea wall, placed atop either wood piles, cribbing, or submerged bags of concrete. The second ferry basin between islands 2 and 3 was infilled in the 1920s to create the great lawn, forming the current south side of Ellis Island. As part of the project, a concrete and granite seawall was built to connect the tip of these landmasses.^[19]