The Streets of Cisco
View of San Francisco from Alcatraz Island
On our recent trip to San Francisco in early May this year, we had the opportunity to visit the one time home of such notables as Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Alvin "Creepy" Karpis - the infamous Alcatraz Island.
We caught the Hornblower Hybrid, one of America's first hybrid propulsion ferrys, down at the well known Pier 39 and within 15 minutes we were docking at "the rock". After a quick tour quide's introduction we made our way up to the prison area which is situated about 40 meters about the docks. The walk was quite long and steep being roughly the height of a 13 storey building over the distance of half a kilometer.
Originally a military prison, Alcatraz was converted into a maximum security civilian prison in the early 1930s and was designed to house only the most notorious offenders of the time. The cells are tiny and the cell block area itself was surprisingly small by my expectations. We wandered through the dining and visitation areas, and then outside catching some spectacular views of the bay.
Coming back through the cell block we took a walk along "Michigan Avenue", location of cells 138, 140 and 144 from the well known escape attempt from 1962. Being a fan of the movie "Escape from Alcatraz", starring Clint Eastwood, this was an extremely nostalgic moment for me and I wish I'd spent a little more time taking it all in.
With hundreds of tourists per day coming to the island there is only so much lingering one can comfortably do though. Definitely a highlight of our trip to say the least.