Alcatraz - San Francisco - TravBuddy

Alcatraz was built in 1853 as a military fort to protect San Francisco during the gold rush, was used as the most uselessly placed fort during the Civil War, and then the military prison was converted to a civilian prison in 1934. Only 1545 prisoners ever served time on Alcatraz, there were 14 escape attempts (one possibly successful), five suicides and eight murders before it was closed in 1963. It cost more than three times the amount to run per prisoner per day than other maximum security Federal prisons, and was never filled to capacity.

Alcatraz is an interesting half-day trip from San Francisco. The National Parks service run multiple tours out from Fisherman's Wharf every day, including evening tours. The evening tour involves the twenty minute ferry trip to the island, a beautiful trip across San Francisco Bay followed overhead by gull, and a tour of the island. Most of the tour is self-guided with an audio guide, but the audio guide is actually quite good, and includes recordings of ex-inmates and ex-guards talking about their experience on the island. Short talks are also given on escape attempts and famous prisoners, a film is shown in the theatre, and demonstrations are made of the door locking mechanism giving the infamous clanging shut of prison doors.

The island also has deer mice and one of the largest colonies of western gulls in northern California.

Boycotts have been called against Hornblower, the company with an exclusive contract to run the ferry service to the islands, for their anti-Union crusading.

Tickets are around $20 and can be bought online.

alcatraz was the most enjoy able expersion iv ever done i recamend if u go 2 san fan u go there it was only bout $15 n u can stay there as long as u want.

San Francisco is een leuke gezellige stad. Wij verbleven in Saulsolito een klein plaatsje aan de andere kant van de Golden gate brug.

On Friday we took the ferry out to Alcatraz Island, the famed federal penitentiary. We wandered around the island and went up to the prison at the top to take the tour. The audio tour was well worth getting. The tour explained the cell blocks, the isolation rooms, the mess hall and described several escape attempts and riots. We got to go into one of the isolation cells and had the door shut behind us. We were in utter darkness - you couldn't see people one foot in front of you. On our way back the ferry offered a nice view of the bay and of the Golden Gate bridge.

Alcatraz was a unique experiance. We learned a lot about the prison and how the convicts were treated. We took the audio tour and found it very educational. I would recomend the experiance to everyone, a do not miss.