816
Stevens, J., dissenting
accorded exclusive jurisdiction over those waters.1 In 1904, when New Jersey conveyed to the United States its entire "right, title, claim and interest of every kind" in those submerged lands, the parties may reasonably have believed that the State thereafter possessed neither ownership nor jurisdiction over that area, particularly since the Compact had provided that New York was entitled to exercise jurisdiction over the surrounding surface.
It is thus not surprising that during the entire period when the Island was enlarged, and when buildings were constructed on filled land, there appears to have been no discussion of the possibility that the Island might be located in two different States. Indeed, even in 1955 and for several years thereafter when representatives of New Jersey vociferously asserted jurisdiction over Ellis Island, they claimed not just the filled portions but the entire Island. It was not until 1963 that New Jersey first advanced the claim that the state line split the Island (and, consequently, three buildings on the Island). Thus, the preponderance of the evidence supports a finding that during the relevant period between 1890 and 1954 both New Jersey and New York believed that the entire Island was located in one State.
II
Census data collected by both New York and the Federal Government establish that nonimmigrants resided on Ellis Island throughout the relevant period. This population increased from 93 in 1915, to 124 in 1920, and 182 in 1925.2
1 Article Third also preserved New Jersey's jurisdiction "over the wharves, docks, and improvements, made and to be made on the shore of the said state," but that provision is not relevant because the original additions to Ellis Island were improvements to the shore of New York, not New Jersey. 4 Stat. 710.
2 These figures refer to nonimmigrants. The 1920 federal census stated that there also were 270 "patients" and 97 "immigrants" on the Island. The 1940 federal census stated that 717 people lived on the Island but does not indicate how many of them were nonimmigrants. Since the 1940
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