After touring Ellis Island it was basically explained one of the reasons New York City got to be so large is that it was the main port of entry for immigrants. Most of these immigrants had spent their life savings just to get to NYC so they couldn’t go on to other cities or areas. Thus this was a major reason NYC got to be so much bigger than other cities.
I have been trying to Google up some information about the number of immigrants coming into America and what port they went to.
I noticed Baltimore was the 2nd largest city in America during the mid 1850s, then Philly regained 2nd place, I was wondering what the immigration to those cities were.
Of course Chicago took over 2nd place in the early 1900s but it was not a port of entry to America but rather a destination.
So can anyone help me locate information about total number of immigrants to America and what port they entered through
Thanks