Exactly 100 years ago today, my 18 year old grandfather, Kurt William Leucht, wrote the following entry into his journal:<\/p>\n
\u00a0It was 11:30am [Germany time]<\/i> when I got up; 5:30am New York time.\u00a0 [Kurt now switched to New York City time in his journal.]<\/i>\u00a0 At 9:00, we saw land far on the horizon.\u00a0 At 10:30, we could recognize the buildings of New York City<\/a> fairly well. \u00a0At noon, we rode past the skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n
We docked at 8:00pm [in Hoboken, NJ which is a couple miles from Ellis Island]<\/i>.\u00a0 From a distance, one could see the thousands of people at the arrival hall, who were expecting us and shouting well wishes.\u00a0 It was a great joy.\u00a0 Shortly before docking, a heavy rain came down, but it soon stopped.\u00a0 First and Second Class disembarked, while we had to remain in the lower decks overnight.\u00a0 There was much to see on the docks from the ship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You can read my grandfather’s entire journal and see photos of what New York and Ellis Island actually looked like in 1914 by clicking below. \u00a0It’s quite interesting! \u00a0Of course, I’m biased! \u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n