4. Noteworthy Immigrants Who Arrived to Castle Garden

Castle Clinton served as an immigrant landing depot between the years 1855-1890, during which an estimated 8 million immigrants (and up to as many as 12 million) arrived to Manhattan. The nation’s first such entity, Castle Garden was operated by the state until the U.S. government decided to move the center to Ellis Island, which was more isolated, and therefore better suited to protect people from the spread of diseases like cholera and smallpox. Quite tragically, most of Castle Clinton’s immigrant records were destroyed in a fire that took place on Ellis Island in 1897.

However, we do know of a few noteworthy immigrants who passed through. This includes Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary), the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of a typhoid fever pathogen, inventor Nikola Tesla, illusionist and stunt performer, Harry Houdini, anarchist political activist and writer, Emma Goldman, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, and Friedrich Trumpf, who would go on to build a real estate empire that was eventually inherited by his grandson, Donald Trump.