Alcatraz

This past weekend, I finally got to visit the island of Alcatraz for the first time. This post showcases my few hours there in words and photos !

To get to the island, we had to take a ferry from one of the piers, not far from Pier 39 which is the famous Fisherman’s Wharf. The wait to enter the ferries did not feel very long, as the ferries run between the main land and the island every 30 minutes. Admission for the ferry also includes admission to and an audio tour on Alcatraz. There are food and drinks available on the ferry ride for passengers to order. The overall ride felt like it ran a little under 10 minutes. Here are some photos I took of San Francisco from the ferry:

Once off the ferry, we were greeted by an enthusiastic park ranger who gave us some history behind the island, which is now considered a national park. Around the mid-1900’s there was an occupation by Native Americans on the island, as the island was not being used anymore at that time (since operating the prison was too expensive). They claimed the land as theirs and in some ways, rightfully so because Alcatraz was one of the places where Native Americans who were non-compliant in the US government’s eyes were sent.

That same park ranger was going to give a live tour in about half an hour’s time from when we arrived on the island, so we walked around the island for a bit, passing through some very Dr. Seuss-like trees rising out of giant succulents:

When it came to for the live tour, the park ranger showed us a photo of the island that was taken around the mid-1800’s. Alcatraz now is essentially a hill on an island, but all that extra ‘hill land’ was moved there. The original island was quite flat. Regardless, the island has also always been a popular nesting destination for birds, as their predators cannot reach them there. He also shared more about Native American history with regards to the island, and educated us on how not even 150 years ago that there were government orders to commit genocide towards the Native Americans, which is very sad history. The park ranger also walked us past some important buildings, like apartment buildings with which regular civilians could live on the island, as well as other interesting buildings like the morgue.

At the end of the live tour, we went inside the prison building for the audio tour. I opted to take a French audio tour, and my headphones were kind of gross so I didn’t wear them, but held them close to my ear. We lined up for our audio guides in an area that was the shower area, with which there was no privacy for the inmates because the guards would have wanted to keep watch of them. On one side of the showering area was this shoemaking-looking area, which I have taken a photo of here:

The rest of the prison was not exactly pretty, which is why I did not stop to take any photos inside. The cells were small (a bed, toilet, sink, and ghetto-looking table and chair), inmates were given very minimal items, and some cells were also very dark. With San Francisco being foggy most of the time, I can imagine very little sunlight coming into the prison in general.

Some inmates really tried making their cells look home-y. A memorable one was an artist’s cell who had all these drawings and paintings that were quite lovely. However, the most memorable thing from the audio guide (in my opinion) was the retelling of one of the escape attempts. A group of inmates somehow managed to make fake heads built with soap, cement, and something else. They left the heads in their beds to make it look like someone was still sleeping in the bed. Each cell also had a vent, and so they managed to go through the vents to sneak out of the prison. It was told that they made it to San Francisco over the cold waters somehow, but their stories stopped there because no one knows if they actually made it over to the mainland alive.

After the audio tour, we walked about the gardens quickly before heading back to the ferry. And that was the end of our time on Alcatraz !