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Which imposing structure would an immigrant have first seen when sailing into New York harbor in Nov. 1886?
As usual in pub quizzes, the very obvious answer is not necessarily the correct one.
Bonus question: where would the immigrants have likely debarked?
Alyona Kolomiitseva said:
I guess it could be a bridge. They're huge, so we can easily call them imposing :)
True, or an early skyscraper.
Seems it is time for a clue or two:
Many people referred to it affectionately (although incorrectly) by a woman's name.I almost thought it's a hurricane
Alyona Kolomiitseva said:
I almost thought it's a hurricane
Sorry, not a naming convention at the time, but I had to google it to make sure :-)
"An early example of the use of a woman's name for a storm was in the novel "Storm" by George R. Stewart. [...] During World War II this practice became widespread in weather map discussions among forecasters, especially Army and Navy meteorologists who plotted the movements of storms over the wide expanses of the Pacific Ocean."
[...]
"The practice of naming hurricanes solely after women came to an end in 1978 when men's and women's names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico."
maybe statue of liberty,since it was on,1 month before nov.1886.
but in truth,since all people from usa are immigrants(mostly from Europe),except true inhabitants of today's usa land,are native americans,American Indians,first immigrants actually saw one big totem of some of these tribes Delaware, Erie, Iroquois, Mohawk, Oneida and Seneca,and of course name of that totem was Tonaya :)
Tonaya sitting bull 
Statue of LibertyOne would think, but as is usual in pub-quizzes: it's not that simple
.
Xena said:
Any other hint you can give us?
Certainly
.
One can just picture an immigrant, one of poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, standing at the railing of a ship, sailing north towards the upper bay, only a few miles before their first glimpse of the New York skyline of lower Manhattan, nudging his companion and commenting:
"I read the French were gifting the Americans a statue, but did you expect it to look like a pachyderm?!?"Lestat said:
Elephantine Colossus HOTel ON Coney Island
And we have a winner !!! Congrats!
And extra points for mentioning Castle Garden, which was the arrival point predating Ellis Island!
For those who would like some background:
A passenger on a ship approaching New York through the lower and upper bays on it’s way to Castle Garden in Nov. 1886 (no not Ellis Island which opened in 1892) would have seen the figure of a gigantic elephant long before passing Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty had been dedicated only a month earlier.
“The Elephantine Colossus” was a tourist attraction on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York City.
It was built in the shape of an elephant, was seven stories high and stood above Surf Avenue and West 12th Street from 1885 until 1896, when it burnt down in a fire.
The thirty-one room building acted as a hotel, concert hall, and brothel and is sometimes referred to as Lucy in reference to its predecessor “Lucy the Elephant” near Atlantic City.” Up to this day, older New Yorkers might recognize the expression “going to see the elephant” as a euphemism for visiting a house of ill repute :-).
See „Elephantine Colossus“ on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephantine_Colossus
well done those who got it
