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Elvis Presley and the Graceland Estate

In March of 2006, Elvis Presleys Graceland estate was raised to the level of
Washingtons Mount Vernon and Jeffersons Monticello. It officially became a National
Historic Monument.

Of course, long before the Secretary of the Interior made this public announcement,
Presley fans worldwide had made his home a popular tourist destination; Graceland
already attracted more than 600,000 people every year. The designation of his home as a
national landmark celebrates his widely-known contributions to American culture and
music history.

Elvis Presley is among the most influential figures in 20th century music and pop culture.
He was most famous as a musician and was indicted into three halls of fame: the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the GMA Gospel Hall of
Fame. No other artist has been honored by all three establishments. Presley also
triumphed on television and starred in 33 movies.

Shortly after his rise to stardom, Elvis felt a need for privacy. In 1957 he moved out of
working-class East Memphis and purchased the 14-acre Graceland estate. The price tag:
$103,000 easily purchased with proceeds from his first hit record, Heartbreak Hotel.
Graceland would be Elviss primary residence for the next 20 years. His parents lived
there too, as did his wife-to-be Priscilla Beaulieu and eventually their daughter, Lisa
Marie. Elvis Presley died in an upstairs Graceland bathroom in 1977.

The Graceland estate is located south of downtown Memphis and is just a few miles
north of the Mississippi border. The grounds were named after Grace Toot, the daughter
of the homes original owner. Grace inherited the property while it was still farmland.
She gifted the land to a niece, Ruth Moore, who had the mansion built.

The colonial-style mansion is constructed of tan limestone with white columns. Two
stone lions seem to guard the front entrance. Elvis Presley expanded the living space
from about 10,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet. He is known for his extravagance
and a unique sense of design; some call it kitschy. The home reflected Elvis well; he
became so comfortable there that when he traveled, his hotel rooms were pre-decorated
with furniture sent from Graceland.

Elviss indoor and outdoor estate expansions were considerable. For privacy, he
constructed a fieldstone wall around the grounds. (Today it is full of visitors graffiti.) He
added a wrought-iron privacy gate to the outside drive; its decorated with iron musical
notes. He installed a swimming pool with adjacent jukebox in his parents bedroom, and
the famous Jungle Room has a waterfall. Elvis also kept several televisions in the
basement and was known to watch three simultaneously.

Today, audio tours begin at the lion-flanked portico. Visitors then see Elviss living room
and the adjacent music room. The tour moves to the kitchen and dining room, and then
downstairs to the basement to see side-by-side TVs, a bar, and a billiards table. The tour
continues upstairs in the Jungle Room. Elvis memorabilia are displayed throughout, with
his sequined jumpsuits being especially prominent. Outdoors, people can see his trophy
collection, horse stables, and a shooting range. A separate building displays his car
collection and two small airplanes. Public tours show much of the mansion but avoid the
top floor where Elvis passed away.

Elvis died at Graceland in 1977. Medical reports vary; he apparently had a drug-induced
heart attack. He was buried at a public cemetery but people attempted to rob his grave.
Presleys remains were moved to his mansions Meditation Gardens, where the performer
joined his deceased parents and grandmother. The August 16th anniversary of Elvis
Presleys death is a particularly popular time for Graceland visits. Despite a downpour of
rain through Memphis, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death drew a procession of
40,000 people.

After Elviss death, Priscilla Presley managed the property and greatly increased its value
by promoting tourism. Graceland opened to the public in 1982. The Presleys daughter,
Lisa Marie Presley, inherited the estate when she turned 30 years old. She kept the
mansion but sold 85% of the grounds to a private management company in 2005. The
new owner, CKX, Inc., plans to make Graceland a theme park on par with Disneyland.

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Ellis Island: Site of Picnics, War, and Immigration

Ellis Island: Site of Picnics, War, and Immigration
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was once the main immigration station for people
entering the United States. About a third of Americans can trace their ancestry to this
entry point. Today Ellis Island is a museum accessible by ferryboat.
The island is named for Samuel Ellis, a wealthy colonial landholder. He once owned the
land and used it as a picnic area. When selling the island, Ellis advertised it along with
several other items he had for sale, including a few barrels of excellent shad and
herrings and a large Pleasure Sleigh, almost new.
The U.S. War Department purchased the island for $10,000 in 1808. They built defenses
there in the buildup to the War of 1812. Fort Gibson was erected to house prisoners of
that conflict. Fifty years later during the Civil War, the Union army used the fort as a
munitions arsenal.
When the Civil War ended, Ellis Island was abandoned for twenty-five years. Then, in
1890, the government wanted a new immigration processing center. (This would replace
the Castle Garden Immigration Depot, the countrys first immigration station, which was
located on the tip of Manhattan.) Ellis Island opened in 1892 as the main processing point
for newcomers; at the time, about 70% of all immigrants passed through the island
facilities.
The first immigrant processed was Annie Moore, a teenager from Ireland who was
meeting her parents in New York. (She received a $10 gold coin!) The Ellis Island staff
continued to process immigrant steamship passengers until 1954, when the last immigrant
was the Norwegian merchant seaman Arne Peterssen. In the more than six decades of
operation, the immigration building on Ellis Island saw more than 12 million hopeful
immigrants. After 1954, the building was not attended to for about thirty years. It was
eventually refurbished in the late 1980s and re-opened as a museum in 1990. It is now
under jurisdiction of the US National Park Service.
Immigrants experiences on Ellis Island differed with social class. Wealthier immigrants
who traveled first or second class generally entered automatically without delay. Third-
class steerage passengers had medical exams and interviews. In the end, about two
percent were sent back across the ocean after these procedures. With these people in
mind, Ellis is also known as The Island of Tears and or Heartbreak Island.
Standard interviews included twenty-nine questions, including name, skills, and amount
of money available. Adults who seemed likely to become a public charge would be
turned away. The medical exams on Ellis Island were brief; they usually lasted only six
seconds! However, people who appeared ill received much more attention. Chalk
markings were put on their clothes to indicate suspected medical conditions. People who
didnt discreetly remove these markings were typically sent home or to the islands
hospital. About three thousand people travelers died in Ellis Islands hospital.
The United States enacted Quota Laws in 1924. These restricted immigration and
resulted in most processing being performed at embassies and consulates instead of
freestanding immigration stations. After 1924 Ellis Island was only sporadically used to
see war refugees and displaced persons. The island was used for Japanese internment and
to house German Americans accused of being Nazis.
Ellis Island was once the subject of a border dispute between New York and New Jersey.
Today the two states have divided ownership of the historic site: the main building
containing the museum is part of New York, and the old hospital buildings are part of
New Jersey. The monument has been managed and preserved by the National Park
Service since 1966.
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Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge

Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge
May 27, 1937 was Pedestrian Day in San Francisco. This kicked off a week-long
celebration of the new Golden Gate Bridge. Pedestrian Day meant that the bridge was
open to foot traffic for 25 cents per person. About 200,000 people paid the fee and
crossed the 1.7-mile span in their walking shoes or on roller skates. For the first time, it
was possible to walk across the San Francisco Bay, from the northern tip of San
Francisco to the southern end of Marin County. Automobile traffic was permitted the
next day at noon.
Before the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed, San Francisco was a relatively isolated
city. It sat at the top of a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water that was difficult
to cross. The Golden Gate itself is a narrow strip of water at the mouth of the San
Francisco Bay. With strong currents and a depth of 400 feet, the Golden Gate strait is
foreboding to sailors. On the other hand, circumnavigating the whole San Francisco Bay
has its drawbacks too: the trip is hundreds of miles long and involves crossing several
rivers, which can become shallow sand traps.
For these reasons, ferry service between San Francisco and Marin County began in 1820.
First the ferry was only for railroad passengers, but later on people could bring their
automobiles in tow. This became booming business.
When bridge proposals became serious, the ferry companies, including the Southern
Pacific Railroad Company, opposed any bridge as competition. The military also
objected to spanning the San Francisco Bay; they questioned whether the bridge would
interfere with war ships. People in general wondered about the sturdiness of a suspension
bridge, which is held by cables and strung between towers. Could such a bridge withstand
the Bays strong gusts of wind? How would the bridge remain rooted in the ocean floor?
Nonetheless, by the 1900s it was evident that ferries alone could not handle travel
demands. The citys growth would be restricted until it overcame obstacles to trading
with Northern California. In 1916 the Chicago-based engineer Joseph Strauss responded
to San Franciscos call for bridge submissions. Immediate local support mixed with
alleged bribery helped him secure support from the city council. Strauss personally
traveled north, too, to lobby Marin County council members and business people. He
assured them that once a bridge was built from San Francisco, their businesses and
property values would grow. He gained their support. By 1932, the founder of San
Francisco-based Bank of America agreed to finance the estimated $30 million project.
Work started in 1933.
The Golden Gate Bridge blueprints were improved upon since Strausss original
submission. Strauss had little experience with suspension style bridges, so he hired a
team of architects who made significant contributions. Today, the Purdue professor
Charles Ellis is widely recognized as being the main architect behind the bridge, while
Strauss is regarded as its organizer and promoter. A San Francisco architect named Irving
Morrow, who was part of Strausss team, also made important contributions. He
suggested painting the bridge a color he called international orange. This would
complement the surrounding blues and greens of nature, and simultaneously make the
bridge visible through fog. (If the bridge coloring had been left to the government or
Strauss, it would likely have been black.) Irving also designed the bridges arches to play
with light throughout the day, making the bridge especially pleasing to the eye. Electric
lighting along the cables adds to the visual appeal at night.
The project was completed within four years and under budget at $27 million. The final
project was built to withstand the Bays high winds; it can sway 27 feet and still safely
hold traffic. It has only been closed a few times since 1937 when winds reached 70 miles
per hour.
Today, ferry service continues between San Francisco and Marin County, but the Golden
Gate Bridge carries over 40 million passengers each year.
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