![Ellis Island. [Credit: © Kevin Fleming/Corbis]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/82679.gif)
Ellis Island. [Credit: © Kevin Fleming/Corbis]Island in Upper New York Bay, formerly the United States' principal immigration reception centre. The island lies about 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of
Manhattan Island,
New York City, and about 1,300 feet (400 metres) east of the
New Jersey shore. It has an area of about 27 acres (11 hectares).
![The Main Building on Ellis Island, 1905. [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/70952.gif)
The Main Building on Ellis Island, 1905. [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]![Dining room on Ellis Island. [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/70953.gif)
Dining room on Ellis Island. [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.][Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]" width="250" height="367">Immigration officials conducting eye examinations on Ellis Island. [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]
The jurisdiction of the island, which lies in New Jersey waters but traditionally has been considered a part of New York City, became the source of a long-running dispute between New Jersey and New York. An agreement between the two states in 1834 gave sovereignty of what was then a 3.3-acre (1.3-hectare) island to New York. In 1998 the U.S. Supreme Court allowed New York to retain this area but awarded sovereignty of the remainder of the island—composed of the landfill added after 1834—to New Jersey.
