The National Park Service recently announced that The Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York is not expected to re-open to the public this year, due to extensive damage from Hurricane Sandy, reports the Associated Press. The move could negatively impact summer tourism to New York City.
As their website details, the Museum stands in honor of the millions of immigrants who docked at Ellis Island before entering the US. It houses myriad self-guided exhibits that chronicle their journeys via artifacts, books, photographs, print, and video, much of which underwent emergency relocation when Sandy flooded the island in eight feet of water.
Though the Museum will remain closed indefinitely, The National Park Service says Ellis Island will be the site of a temporary security check point that visitors must pass through to gain access to the Statue of Liberty, when it re-opens to the public on July 4th, an event that is sure to draw a crowd.
Craine’s New York Business reports that since 9/11, the security checkpoint has been in Battery Park, and the NYPD have expressed public concern over the tent's relocation to the island.
"We have recommended that screening be conducted, as has long been the practice, before passengers board the ferries for the trip to Ellis Island," an NYPD spokesman said.
For more from Associated Press, click here.