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September 29, 2014
NEW YORK — The crumbling old sick ward opens off a long hallway, separate from the rest of the Ellis Island hospital complex. Plaster peels from the walls. Broken porcelain light fixtures hang haphazardly above where beds once stood. The low clanging of boats and the splash of waves on the breakwater drift in through cracked windowpanes that showcase a resplendent view of the Statue of Liberty. This is where the sickest immigrants came on their final days.
“If you found yourself in this room, you were either too sick to survive or too sick to stay,” tour guide Jessica Cameron-Bush said. “And this was your last view — the Statue of Liberty.”
. . .