We went out on a boat run by the Blue & Gold Fleet. The tickets were $16 a person (adult), which included an audio tour (regular price is $11 per person without the audio tour). If you want the full experience, pay the extra $5 to get the audio tour. Make sure you get tickets ahead of time, as they sell out quick! My brother bought them online (www.blueandgoldfleet.com). They have standby tickets, but the chances of getting on one of those is slim to none. The audio tour is a self-guided tour. They give you a headset with an audio tape that tells you all about the prison, prisoners, guards, etc. It is really cool! You can walk around freely, and you can even go into some of the cells. They also have ranger-guided tours if you don't want the audio tour. Or you can walk around without a guide if you want. You can walk around for a little while, or you can walk around for hours. There is no time limit, just as long as you get back to the last boat off the island. I think the last boat left at 6:30 pm.
Before Alcatraz was a prison, it was a little island off of San Francisco, which was occasionally visited, perhaps, by Miwok and Ohoe Indians. In 1850, a proposal was made to put a military fort on Alcatraz Island. Between 1859 and 1906, Alcatraz was the site of a military fort and prison. By 1907, Alcatraz Island's defenses became obsolete, and the army decommissioned Alcatraz as a military fort.
In 1915, Alcatraz was renamed, "United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch," and in 1934, Alcatraz was reopened as a federal penitentiary.. Over the years, some 1,545 men did time on "The Rock." Among them were Al Capone, George "Machine Dun" Kelley, Floyd Hamilton, and Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz." Most of the men imprisoned on Alcatraz were considered troublemakers in other prison populations.
Over the years, a total of 14 escape attempts were made, the most famous being attempt #13 , in June 1962, when Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin made their way out of Alcatraz's walls and into the Pacific Ocean. They had dug their way out of their cell walls and escaped into the ocean with flotation devices made of raincoats. They had put dummy "heads" into their beds to fool the guards into thinking that they were asleep in their beds. Although they were never found, they were presumed to have drowned in the ocean.
Increased maintenance and operating costs led to the closure of Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary in 1963, and the prisoners were then transferred to other prisons. After the prison closed, Native Americans occupied it between June 1969 to June 1971, and in October of 1972, Alcatraz Island became a National Park.
You can really get a good feel of what it was like to be on Alcatraz when it was a prison by taking the tour, and especially with the aid of the audio tour. The audio tour gives you interviews with past inmates and guards, and even has sound effects. It is really interesting.
There are a lot of other things to do and see in San Francisco if you can't make the Alcatraz Tour. There is the San Francisco Zoo, Fisherman's Wharf, Angel Island, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge, the Exploratorium, The San Francisco Mint, China Town, and of course, Lombard Street and trolley cars. There is also a wax museum and the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.
Next time you are in San Francisco, check out one or more of these places. It is a great tourist city!
Alcatraz Island
Fisherman's Wharf
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