Alcatraz

After breakfast this morning we headed back into the city for our scheduled tour of The Rock.   The picture at the right was taken as we waited to board our ferry out to the island.    As you can see, it was another beautiful day.  The biggest difference is that the wind picked up considerably.   You can see the whitecaps beginning to form on the water behind Bob.    The picture at the top left is taken as we started our tour.   Alcatraz began as a military encampment during Civil War days, and stayed a military prison for many years.   But when it became a federal prison in the 1930's,  Alcatraz must have been quite a place.   We were given headsets with audio commentary as we walked through the corridors of the main cell block.   It was so creepy.   It has been left very much as it was the day in 1963 when the prison was closed and all the prisoners left.   In 1969 a group of American Indians took over the island in protest of their treatment by the United States government.   Some of them stayed on the island for more than a year.   Once they were removed, the island was taken over by the national park system.

The tour and our walk around the island was most interesting.  We learned about some of the famous "guests" at Alcatraz, like Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and the Birdman of Alcatraz.   We also were told stories of the handful of escape attempts, most of which failed.  It was where the worst of the worst were sent.   One quote on the wall summed it up.   It went something like this, "When you don't follow the rules, you go to prison.   When you don't follow the prison rules, you go to Alcatraz."

It was a most interesting visit.