<P> Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, the island is guarded by patrols of the United States Park Police Marine Patrol Unit . Public access is by ferry from either Communipaw Terminal in Liberty State Park or from the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan . The ferry operator, Hornblower Cruises and Events, also provides service to the nearby Statue of Liberty . A bridge built for transporting materials and personnel during restoration projects connects Ellis Island with Liberty State Park but is not open to the public . The city of New York and the private ferry operator at the time opposed proposals to use it or replace it with a pedestrian bridge . </P> <P> Much of the island, including the entire south side, has been closed to the public since 1954 . The renovated area on the north side was again closed to the public after Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 . The island was re-opened to the public and the museum partially re-opened on October 28, 2013, after major renovations . </P> <P> Originally much of the west shore of Upper New York Bay consisted of large tidal flats which hosted vast oyster banks, a major source of food for the Lenape population who lived in the area prior to the arrival of Dutch settlers . There were several islands which were not completely submerged at high tide . Three of them (later to be known as Liberty Island, Black Tom Island and Ellis Island) were given the name Oyster Islands by the settlers of New Netherland, the first European colony in the region . The oyster beds remained a major source of food for nearly three centuries . Landfilling to build the railyards of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey eventually obliterated the oyster beds, engulfed one island, and brought the shoreline much closer to the others . During the colonial period, Little Oyster Island was known as Dyre's, then Bucking Island . In the 1760s, after some pirates were hanged from one of the island's scrubby trees, it became known as Gibbet Island . It was acquired by Samuel Ellis, a colonial New Yorker and merchant possibly from Wales, around the time of the American Revolution . In 1785, he unsuccessfully attempted to sell the island: </P> <P> TO BE SOLD By Samuel Ellis, no . 1, Greenwich Street, at the north river near the Bear Market, That pleasant situated Island called Oyster Island, lying in New York Bay, near Powle's Hook, together with all its improvements which are considerable;...</P>

Where did the name ellis island come from