Descendants of Levi Infanger - Cardello Family History

voyage to New York. Eventually government supervision of sanitation regulations improved conditions.
While French and British shipping companies made their passengers cook their own meals, German
shipping companies provided meals for their steerage passengers. The menu: Sunday-salt
meat, meal pudding and prunes. Monday-salt bacon, pea soup and potatoes. Tuesday-salt meat,
rice and prunes. Wednesday-smoked bacon, sauerkraut, and potatoes. Thursday-salt meat, potatoes
and bean soup. Friday-Herring, meal and prunes. Saturday-salt bacon, pea soup and potatoes.
The principle ports from Germany were Bremen and Hamburg. In the early 19th century Le
Havre was also a major port of embarkation for many Germans. Others used a complicated but
competitively priced route from Holland to England, crossing England by rail and embarking at
Liverpool. Ships carried cotton, tobacco and timber on the eastward journey and human cargo on
the westward journey.
The Arrival in New York City
After 1837 every ship entering a port in the
United States was required to have a manifest
indicating the name of the ship, the port from
which it sailed, the date of its arrival in the US
and a list of all passengers, indicating their age,
sex, occupation, and nationality. The trip was
not necessarily over when the ship reached New
York Harbor. By 1846 all vessels coming into
the harbor had to undergo a quarantine inspection.
The ships were anchored near Staten Island.
All passengers were examined and if
found sick were sent to the quarantine hospital
on Staten Island. If there were sick passengers
onboard the ship had to remain in quarantine for
30 days. It wasn't the most effective quarantine
First Sight of New York Bay - Arrival of a European
Steamer. - Harper's Weekly, June 2, 1877
system in the world as two days a week visitors were allowed, and hundreds came by ferry from
the city to Staten Island to visit. In 1847 there were 600 cases of small pox, 30,00 of typhus, and
sixty cases of cholera at the quarantine hospital.
Castle Gardens
Because of the large increase in immigration in the mid 1800's and in an effort to protect the
newly arriving immigrant from scam artists, the State of New York opened an immigration processing
center at Castle Gardens on August 1, 1855.
Castle Garden, located at the lower tip of Manhattan, is now the Castle Clinton National Monument.
Built in 1807 as an artillery defense fort to protect the New York harbor it was called West
Battery. After the war of 1812 the name was changed to Fort Clinton. Originally it stood about
300 feet off shore and was connected to the mainland by a causeway. It has gradually been connected
by landfill to Battery Park. In 1824 the fort was enclosed and became a popular theater
called Castle Garden with a seating capacity of 6,000. After Ellis Island was opened in 1892 the
building was turned into an Aquarium. It was closed in 1941 for the construction of the Brooklyn-
Battery Tunnel and the Aquarium subsequently moved to the Bronx Zoo. Robert Moses wanted it
demolished but there was enough opposition that it was preserved and in 1950 it was declared a
national monument and became the property of the U. S. Department of Interior. It was restored
in the 1970s and now contains the ticket offices for the ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis