Editing Ellis Island (section)

===Land expansion===
[[File:Ellis Island and Manhattan as seen from New Jersey shore 2020-06-29.jpg|thumb|left|Ellis Island and Manhattan as seen from New Jersey shore in 2020]]
Initially, much of the Upper New York Bay's western shore consisted of large [[Mudflat|tidal flats]] with vast [[Oyster|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-subsumed [[Black Tom explosion#Black Tom Island|Black Tom Island]].<ref>{{cite book |author=New Jersey. Legislature. Senate |title=Journal of the ... Senate of the State of New Jersey: Being the ... Session of the Legislature |year=1860 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wm1MAAAAYAAJ |access-date=June 11, 2019 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329130324/https://books.google.com/books?id=wm1MAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kurlansky 2007 p. 35">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nwYl-7DhMvcC&pg=PA35 |title=The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell |last=Kurlansky |first=Mark |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-58836-591-0 |page=35 |access-date=June 4, 2019 |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329130050/https://books.google.com/books?id=nwYl-7DhMvcC&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nyt20060301">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/books/before-there-were-bagels-new-york-had-the-oyster.html |title=Before There Were Bagels, New York Had the Oyster |last=Grimes |first=William |date=February 1, 2006 |website=The New York Times |access-date=June 3, 2019 |archive-date=April 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410034849/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/books/before-there-were-bagels-new-york-had-the-oyster.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the late 19th century, the federal government began expanding the island by [[land reclamation]] to accommodate its immigration station, and the expansions continued until 1934.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ellis Island, New Jersey, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station for over sixty years from 1892 until 1954 |date=August 24, 2017 |website=Home &#124; Library of Congress |url=http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017882211/ |access-date=July 14, 2019 |archive-date=July 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714141530/http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017882211/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[National Park Service]] cites the fill as supposedly having been acquired from the ballast of ships, as well as material excavated from the [[Early history of the IRT subway|first line]] of the [[New York City Subway]];<ref name="NPS-Fact-Sheet">{{cite web |title=Fact Sheet: Statue of Liberty NM – Ellis Island |website=National Parks of New York Harbor |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |date=May 11, 1965 |url=https://www.nps.gov/npnh/learn/news/fact-sheet-elis.htm |access-date=May 1, 2019 |archive-date=June 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601032120/https://www.nps.gov/npnh/learn/news/fact-sheet-elis.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> however,  ''The New York Times'' writes that there is no evidence of subway fill being transported to the island.<ref>{{Cite news |last=MacFarquhar |first=Neil |date=December 31, 1995 |title=Ellis Island May Have Been Made for You and Me, but Who Owns It? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/31/nyregion/ellis-island-may-have-been-made-for-you-and-me-but-who-owns-it.html |access-date=October 13, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> It also may have come from the [[Rail yard|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.<ref name="Justia209473">{{cite court |url=http://supreme.justia.com/us/209/473/case.html |litigants=Central R. Co. of New Jersey v. Jersey City |vol=209 |reporter=U.S. |opinion=473 |year=1908 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212122745/http://supreme.justia.com/us/209/473/case.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref name="EI-EIS p. 5" /><ref name="NPS-Map" /> It was originally three separate islands. The current north side, formerly called island 1, contains 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. Two eastward-facing ferry docks separated the three numbered landmasses.<ref name="EI-EIS p. 5" /><ref name="NPS-Map">{{Cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/elis/learn/education/upload/9-12-Ellis-Island-Map.pdf |title=Structural Development of Ellis Island, 1890–1935 |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=June 3, 2019 |archive-date=December 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212173214/https://www.nps.gov/elis/learn/education/upload/9-12-Ellis-Island-Map.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

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. It was placed atop either wood piles, cribbing, or submerged bags of concrete. In the 1920s, the second ferry basin between islands 2 and 3 was infilled 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.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Stakely|2003|p=73}}</ref>