Jersey claims Ellis tourists get taken for a ride : Some say a free pedestrian bridge should take the place of a mandatory $6 ferry trip.

One of the thrills of visiting the new Ellis Island Immigration Museum is to arrive at the 27.5-acre parcel of land in upper New York Harbor just as the immigrants did--by ferry.

Or so argues the National Park Service, the federal agency that operates the $165-million museum, which opened to land-office business two months ago.

But it’s a thrill that many New Jersey political leaders think the thousands of visitors who daily travel to the island from the Jersey side of the harbor can do without.

At $6 a ticket for adults and $3 a ticket for children 3 to 11, the politicians contend, the 10-minute ferry ride to Ellis from Jersey’s Liberty State Park can add up to a hefty chunk of change for the average American family.

“Tell me about it,” said Carolyn Lawson of Washington, D.C., who shelled out a total of $33 for herself and her seven grandchildren--two of them over 11--for a recent visit with a Veterans of Foreign Wars tour group.

New Jersey politicians say they have a simple solution: Make a free pedestrian walkway to the island out of the 1,358-foot-long temporary bridge that was used by the construction crews that renovated the island’s main building, an imposing red-brick structure with copper-clad turrets that houses the museum.

The temporary span has not yet been dismantled, and it could easily and relatively cheaply be made permanent, according to the contractor who built it.

“The immigrants came here very poor,” said Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann. “Now people are being charged $6 for a ferry ride when it’s just as easy to walk. A fast sprinter could do it in 19 seconds, a reasonable runner in 30 seconds and anybody else could walk across in a minute.”

But at a hearing in September by the House subcommittee on national parks and public lands, Park Service officials argued that the concept of the new museum is centered on reliving the immigrant experience, beginning with reaching the island by boat.

A pedestrian walkway to the island would run counter to this concept, they said, and also would subject visitors to several unsightly views on their way to the museum, including an old power station and a dilapidated construction building.

“The National Park Service would like to see the bridge disappear,” said Kevin Buckley, superintendent of Ellis Island and the nearby Statue of Liberty national monument.

Buckley also contended that there was no hue and cry from the public over the ferry rates--which were hiked by 50% just before the immigration museum was opened in early September. There is no admission charge.

But most visitors seem to be unaware that there is any alternative to the ferries, which are run by the Circle Line of New York under contract with the Park Service.

The ferries leave from both Liberty State Park and Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. The fare covers stops at both Ellis and the Statue of Liberty.

“If the bridge is already there, why not use it--especially if there are people who can’t afford the ferry,” said Peggy Nichols of Newark, Del., during a recent visit with her young daughter, Diana.

“It’s a great idea,” added Elinor Cohn, who was part of a senior citizens tour group from Maryland. New Jersey politicians say having a pedestrian bridge also would provide relief when the tourist traffic is so heavy that people sometimes are forced to wait up to four hours for a ferry ticket.

Attendance at the museum is exceeding expectations. “We were projecting 1 million to 1.5 million visitors yearly, but at the rate we’re going it will end up at around 3 million,” said Stephen Briganti, president of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, a private association that spearheaded the restorations of the two national landmarks.

“We’d be happy to sell (the bridge) to New Jersey,” Briganti said, adding that the price tag is $500,000. New Jersey’s congressional delegation is trying to get the Park Service to go along with the idea.

The latest Department of Interior appropriations package includes a provision, authored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), calling for a feasibility study into a bridge.

And Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) has asked the General Accounting Office to see whether the new 15-year contract between the Park Service and the Circle Line was negotiated competitively and without favor.