Waking up that early wasn't too bad, mostly because we ended waking up at like 7:15 and rushing out the house as fast as we could. We hopped onto the BART (a train system that runs through the bay area, BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit) to San Francisco and then walked down the beach road to our destination. I brought along a camera, here's what happened.
It was very early…
This was the entrance to the Alcatraz touring company's liftoff site. From here we picked up our tickets and got in line to hop onto their cruise ship, a hybrid cruise ship (so San Francisco).
After getting onto the little cruise ship to the island we were let off at the bottom of the island. We soon found at that this dock was the only spot on the island that ships could enter the island from. Alcatraz had a long history of use during times of war, and for this reason, the rocks we carved out on all sides of the island to prevent any entrance to the island by boat except for this little dock. Cool!
After getting a brief introduction to the island from the man in the first picture who looks oddly like a ranger, we the proceeded to go on a guided tour giving an overview of the historical significance of the island before making it up to the actual prison. The island was not discovered for a significant time after the discovery of San Francisco, back in the day, because the island rests in between the peninsulas creating the bay in which the island is located. So, the view from sea makes it seem as if the bay does not even exist, that there is an continuous expanse of land; the island is occupying the space between the two peaks that enclose the bay. Later in the history of the area, Alcatraz also served as a military base protecting San Francisco during the Civil War. During the civil war troops lived on the island maintaining over 200 cannons in case of combat. The island never saw battle during the civil war. Here's our walk up the side of the island towards the prison.
Inside this covered area were two canons, one on each side, meant to protect the island from invaders on foot. Intense.
This part was cool and all, it was nifty to learn about the role that Alcatraz served in WW1 and WW2, but the tour got most exciting when it ended at the prison itself. The prison was pretty frightening from first glance. Knowing that so many famous, or infamous, people spent time here gave the area an eery feeling. An eerie Awesome feeling!
Entering the prison, aside from the gift shop located near the entrance, was very exciting. Soon after entering we were able to begin an audio tour that told stories from the prison as well as its history, narrated by people who actually lived and worked at Alcatraz. This tour took us through all parts of the prison, be it the cell block, the cafeteria, or the courtyard. Here are a few pics
Going around the prison cells, the audio tour gave us chilling accounts from some of the inmates telling of what life was like being a prisoner at Alcatraz. They spoke of how life was structured to an extent that escape was not even thought of as plausible, their life was too filled with either strictly regulated drills or time in their cell. The idea of sneaking away was very unlikely with the strict regulations that the prison imposed. This was understandable though, considering the fact that the prison housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the country; during Alcatraz's active life as a prison facility, it would house famous criminals such as the bird man and Al Capone. Most excellent. Though life was horrible, and escape seemed impossible, during the tour we were also told of a nearly successful escape attempt. This event would become known as the Battle of Alcatraz. As the guard told it, a man inside a prison rigged an abandoned piece of piping with a nut and bolt to create a little device that could pry open the bars of a cell if placed at the bars weakest spot. Using this tool, a team of inmates overpowered a guard while on their way back to their cell, and then the tool was used as one of the men climbed to the second level of the cell block to wait for a guard, patrolling the area, to return to take his key to escape. The guard came back and the prisoner overpowered him and took his keys. The escapees went to the door that would take them out of the prison, but found that none of the keys on the guard that they had overpowered worked for opening the door. You find out that the guard who had the key had, against prison policy, taken out this key because he needed it later in the night to let in cooks (or something) and did not want to return to his coat locker to get the key later in the night. To prevent this, the guard had put the key in his shoe, as to not forget it after he changed and left. Hiding the key in his show prevented the prisoners from escaping, but a fight ensued after a large group of prisoners realized that they would not be able to escape, and, had a few guards that they could use as hostages. The fight that broke out between the prisoners and two called in platoons of marines resulted in many deaths and remains the largest escape attempt made at the prison. Here is a picture of where the final gunfight took place, the spot where the marine ended up throwing a grenade at the escaping prisoners to halt their last stand.
Cool story right? The previous pictures of the cell block is where all this took place! Here are some more pictures of this cell block.
After hearing a few stories from the inmates, we made our way over to an even creepier part of the prison, solitary confinement; legendary cell block D.
This was a very dark place in the prison, the stories told by some of the surviving resident of the prison recounting their experiences in Cell block D were very dark. A story that stuck with me was of a man who, when he went into solitary confinement, would bring in a single coin. Since he would be left alone for days in the darkness, what he would do is try to find the middle of the room and then flip the coin up in the air. His next task was to then find the coin on the dark floor. After finding the coin, he would go back to the middle of the room, and then repeat. Whoa, talk about a guy desperate for entertainment. Here are some pictures of other spots in the prison we went through before going outside.
The laundry room.
The library. They said that the inmates did a great deal of reading, with favorites among the inmates being works of Kant and Hegel. Whoa.
The shower room. Yea.
Leaving the bulk of the prison got you outside in a courtyard overlooking San Francisco. The inmates in our audio tour said that the worst part about being at Alcatraz was the isolation combined with being just 1.2 miles away from San Francisco, a huge city. During the night they would be able to hear all sorts of sounds coming from the city, and during the day, they could smell the food coming from the many bakeries and restaurants in the city. Here are some pictures of the courtyard.
This pretty much concluded our tour of Alcatraz. After getting outside we saw that we had about ten minutes to run back down to the docks to get on our leaving ferry for Angel Island. We had tours of both Alcatraz and Angel Island. Angel Island is well known as being the sort of 'ellis island' of the west coast, having Asian immigrants come to the island before being admitted into the United States. The island is also known for the being the site of German and Japanese POW's and concentration camps for suspected Japanese-Americans. A dark place. Sadly, about 4 minutes of tour was devoted to these historical artifacts. The other hour and 26 minutes were spent convincing us that we should take our families to the island every year for a gorgeous camping experience that our children would remember for the rest of their lives. Yes, the island was now a family oriented camp ground. Although our tour guide neglected the 'historical significance' of the island, they did point out the many different types of foliage and small game that lived on the island, and the spectacular views of the bay area from the top of the island. Here are some pics
Our tour guide. She gave it to us STRAIGHT! She didn't mess around with our ability to take beautiful photos of the island. She was the most real part of the tour.
They weren't kidding, the view from this island was truly breathtaking.
Angel Island was, like Alcatraz, a base during the civil war. Here are some of the houses from that era of the officers and soldiers who lived on the island. Did you know that in the first big building in the picture they made 200 loaves of bread everyday! Neato
It was a great trip, Alcatraz was super intersting and intense, and Angel Island more family oriented and peaceful. A very excellent day in San Francisco. To cap off this tour, here is a little video that we took right before we left the island. Also, right before we left we got to try riding a segway; they give tours via segway of the island. \
A great tour, and a great day. Thanks for swinging by.
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