Impressionable, full of the fantastic, the ominous! It was going to be an exciting day for me. So much so I could hardly sleep the night before. I tossed and turned in my bed anticipating the excitement of the next day’s adventure. I was going to walk upon “The Rock” or Alcatraz Island.
It was an infamous prison, with an interesting history, that had held gangsters and other outlaws I learned about in school or saw news reels of on television. Yes, I remember the thrill that night as I lay thinking about the next day’s adventure to Alcatraz. I could almost hear the heavy clang of closing prison doors, night whistles blowing, and the call for “lights out” as I lightly drifted in and out of sleep. What thoughts a young mind might fall to sleep to.
The next morning we lined up waiting to board the long yellow school bus. I felt a rush of electrifying excitement, the kind you get when anticipation turns into a reality. The kind of excitement that makes a child seem hyper; then again, I was hyper. But I liked field trips. In fact, field trips for me were the highlights of the school year. Those were the school days I looked forward to because there was a sense of freedom in them for me.
I was going on a journey into the unknown, to see things I could only imagine, but had never seen. The days prior to the field trip our teacher taught us about Alcatraz. She told us fascinating stories of the Chicago crime czar Al Capone. We learned about the notorious bank robber and kidnapper Machine Gun Kelly, also known as George Kelly Barnes. And there was also the most famous inmate, “The Birdman of Alcatraz” Robert Stroud.
“Fill the back first. And behave while I drive. The first one who doesn’t I turn the bus around and no one will go anywhere except to the principal’s office,” the teacher yelled. Like any of us kids really heard him or cared less! We sat where we wanted, like he was going to really turn the bus around or try to work his way through a bunch of roughty-toughty kids in the isle! Ha,Ha!
“The Rock”, better known as Alcatraz, has been many things to many different people and cultures. For some who have an understanding of this island’s history it has stood for a fortress against the evils of other societies and cultures. For others it stands for a place of confinement with hardly an escape route for those federal ruffians with a history of notorious behavior and escapes from mainland prisons. And others still remember “The Rock” as a place where Indians once lived. Yes, “The Rock” has always been a place not happily remembered.
The American federal government used this island as a prison to house some of the most notorious criminals of its time, before its prison operation closed down.
Alcatraz has sat in the midst of many storms, both natural and man made, it remains an icon in the annals of American history. Controversy has always crashed against its shores.
It was at first thought in the political arena a defensive position against attack from the pacific. It wasn’t until 1847, in the midst of conflict with Mexico, and its potential naval threat, that the US government took notice of this barren desolate island as a strategic military post. The island was so situated in the San Francisco peninsula as to provide a defensive position against enemy naval activity approaching the main land from the Pacific Ocean.
Once the military realized “The Rock” as a potential military defensive position, it took them several years to make Alcatraz into the military fortress they thought they needed.
Alcatraz Island sits in the San Francisco peninsula, approximately two miles from the nearest shore. The Golden Gate Bridge lies to the north, with military installations, navy and marine corps, to be specific, on either of its sides.
Tours depart from pier 33. For a goose bump inducing experience tour at night and capture the night time ambiance of the most notorious criminals in US history, conspiring, creating, and developing their escape. The face of Al Capone ordering a death hit of a prison rival. Machine Gun Kelly giving orders to one of his henchman.
Imagine the Anglian bros working on their escape. Conspiring and artistically creating dummy heads as decoys for head count, allowing the brothers time for their escape. It was a good count in the CO’s estimation. The officer did count all the heads. The numbers tallied up. He was confident that everyone one was in their cell and fast asleep. But, unknown to him, three were actually out rushing and scurrying toward the door of their escape, trying to get out of the cage they were locked up in.
Alcatraz weather is a little different at night. The temperature drops quickly due to the winds that push into the peninsula from the Pacific Ocean so take a sweater, and the island is hilly, composed of many sharp and jagged edges so good shoes are essential. With just a few precautions – and behaving yourself – you can take a fascinating look back in history on Alcatraz Island.