Civil War, the County Bounty Committee erected a recruitment center next to Castle Garden. Two years later, the Board of Emigration Commissioners constructed a one-story labor exchange building, a waiting room, and an information office, and they made repairs to Castle Garden. The fort's exterior remained largely unchanged over the years, but the interior and many of the fort's wooden outbuildings were frequently renovated. Battery Park was expanded circa 1869 using landfill, at which point the island containing Castle Garden was incorporated into the rest of Manhattan Island. The rotunda was extensively restored at this time, and a wooden balcony was installed. By then, The New York Times wrote that the surrounding Battery Park was "a haven for the 'runners' who approached innocent Irish and German newcomers, offering them nonexistent lodgings for their money". 1870s and 1880s By the early 1870s, Castle Garden's information bureau employed staff members who could speak over a dozen languages. To encourage immigrants to use other ports of entry, the New York state government issued a head tax on every immigrant who passed through Castle Garden. This measure was largely ineffective, as The New York Times wrote in 1874: "Castle Garden is so well known in Europe that few emigrants can be induced to sail to any other destination." By then, the immigration depot was in poor condition, with rotting floors and "tottering" offices and benches. The Board of Emigration Commissioners lost a significant source of income in 1875, when the Supreme Court of the United States invalidated a New York state law that required steamship companies to pay a poll tax or put up a bond for each immigrant. Afterward, the commissioners sought funding from the state legislature. Due to budgetary shortfalls, the Emigration Commissioners disbanded the labor bureau in 1875, although the German and Irish Emigrant Societies took over the labor bureau's operation. Congress passed the Page Act of 1875, the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States, during this time. The structure was severely damaged in a fire on July 30, 1876. Castle Garden's exterior remained intact, as did the outbuildings to the north of the fort, but the interior was completely destroyed. In the aftermath of the fire, several city officials proposed shuttering the Castle Garden immigration center and restoring the fort as a venue for "public enjoyment". Nonetheless, the New York state government awarded a contract for Castle