Before arriving in San Francisco, I had booked our Alcatraz
tickets for the morning we were leaving. It’s a good thing I did, as we were
the first tour time and it was packed.
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| Bye-Bye Union Square |
We loaded up our suitcases and left them with the valet at
the hotel. Then we caught a cab to take us to the pier. We were on the 9:10
boat, and by 9:20 were on Alcatraz. What a depressing island – as you approach
it and get off the boat this large, imposing, stone building looms above you.
We listened to a brief introduction about the island and how it became a
prison. Then we were pointed toward a theater room that was showing a more
in-depth documentary about the history.
Alcatraz wasn’t used much until it became a military
fortress in the 1880’s due to it’s proximity to San Francisco. The costs of
building and repairing were expensive, so in the late 1800’s it became a
military prison. When those costs also became to high, it was sold to the Department
of Justice and became a Federal Prison in 1934. It was for the “worst of the
worst” offenders – those who had committed awful crimes and those who caused
problems at other facilities. It was the “gangster era” so most prisoners were
killers or bank robbers.
According to Wikipedia: “During
the 29 years it was in use, the jail held some of the most notorious criminals
in American history, such as Al Capone,
Robert
Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), George
"Machine Gun" Kelly, Bumpy Johnson, Rafael Cancel
Miranda (a member of the Puerto Rican
Nationalist Party who attacked the United States
Capitol building in 1954), Mickey Cohen, Arthur R. "Doc" Barker,
James "Whitey" Bulger,
and Alvin
"Creepy" Karpis (who served more time at Alcatraz than any
other inmate). It also provided housing for the Bureau of Prisons staff and
their families. During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary claimed that
no prisoner successfully escaped. A total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape
attempts, two men trying twice; 23 were caught, six were shot and killed during
their escape, two drowned, and five are listed as "missing and presumed
drowned".[ The most violent occurred on May 2, 1946, when a failed
escape attempt by six prisoners led to the Battle of Alcatraz. On
June 11, 1962, Frank Morris,
John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin carried
out one of the
most intricate escapes ever devised.
Because
the penitentiary cost much more to operate than other prisons (nearly $10 per
prisoner per day, as opposed to $3 per prisoner per day at Atlanta), and
half a century of salt water
saturation had severely eroded the buildings, then Attorney
General Robert F.
Kennedy ordered the penitentiary closed on March 21, 1963. In
addition, citizens were increasingly protesting the environmental effects of
sewage released into San Francisco Bay from the approximately 250 inmates and
60 Bureau of Prisons families on the island. That year, the United States
Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, on land,
opened as the replacement facility for Alcatraz.”
The tour was done as a self-guided audio tour. Normally I
don’t enjoy audio tours as I prefer to read the information, however this one
was great. It was recorded by former prisoners and guards which brought the
history to life. It was an engaging presentation, and both Brian and I enjoyed
it.
I hadn’t known much about Alcatraz before the tour, so I
learned a lot. Something that surprised me was learning that the guards and
their families lived on the island as well. The audio tour included stories
from them and what it was like as a child growing up beside the prison.
We got to see the cell-blocks, visiting area, library, office
areas, solitary confinement, as well as the kitchen. It was very interesting
and enjoyable tour but they didn’t touch too much on the Native American
occupation that occurred in the 1960’s and lasted for two years. But the traces
from that time were evident in the graffiti on the buildings.
Alcatraz is a fascinating place with a much more detailed
history then I ever imagined.
After Brian and I arrived back at the pier, we took a cab
to the hotel and loaded up the car. We got out of San Francisco and stopped for
a quick lunch at a Panera. We made another stop at a mall in San Jose because
there were a few stores I wanted to have a look in. I initially directed us to
the wrong mall, so we lost a bit of time due to that. But by 4:00pm we were on
the road and heading toward Los Angeles.
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| If this had been opened at the San Jose Mall I would have dragged Brian! |
We took the more direct route down to LA which cut through
the state, rather then going along the coast. It still took a number of hours,
but was a lot more scenic then I imagined. When I had thought of California, I
always pictured palm trees, beaches and desert. This route was similar to
Ireland, as it was full of green hills and in some areas had farms with cattle.
We passed by the reservoir, which was beautiful. Brian picked up an AUX Cable
at the gas station so we were able to listen (and sing along) to music from my
iPhone (we kept losing radio stations). We stopped for pizza and a break around
10:00pm and didn’t pull into the LA area until after midnight.
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| Google Street View Car - Brian had me get a photo. |
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| The scenic drive |
I was grateful it was so late because the highways were far
more insane then I had imagined. They crisscrossed everywhere, and the speed
limits are higher then you would expect. Despite the late hour cars were
whizzing by us, and it was relatively busy. I could only imagine what it would
be like during the day.
Our first night’s hotel was the Hilton Garden Inn by Marina
Del Ray, but since it was so late we checked in and went right to sleep. It had
been a long day, and we had five more full days ahead of us.
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