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Alcatraz by night
Road Trippin’ Northern California
Alcatraz is one of the coolest ‘heritage’ attractions in one of the coolest cities in America.
On a small island a tantalizing two kilometres from San Francisco, which at night twinkles alluringly close, Alcatraz was a maximum security prison meant for the worst lawbreakers in America; the SOBs other prisons couldn’t handle any more.
If prisons were baseball teams, Alcatraz’s murderer’s row would have put to shame the 1927 Yankees.
Among the 1,576 prisoners held at Alcatraz, during its relatively brief but notorious run (August 1934 to March 21, 1963), were Al Capone, George ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly, Canadian Alvin ‘Creepy’ Karpis, Robert Franklin Stroud (aka the Birdman), Whitey Bulger, Doc Barker, Bumpy Johnson and Mickey Cohen.
Today, the retired facility is a sprawling museum, consisting of much of the former prison and the earlier incarnation of Alcatraz, a military citadel and prison, with the first cells built before the First World War.
About 1.5 million people visit Alcatraz every year, taking the short passenger ferry ride from Pier 33 over San Francisco Bay to the island. (Tip: Book your visit well in advance of getting to San Francisco.)
There are day and night tours that provide plenty of time for walking around the entire island, and taking in the headphone tour that outlines much of the history, including escape attempts, riots, prisoners, wardens and more.
Additionally, US National Park Service rangers and guides provide more detailed histories of specific topics, such as Al Capone or the best known escape attempts.
We opted for a nighttime tour of Alcatraz, hoping to play with light and mood and it was a blisteringly fun photo shoot.
We highly recommend visiting this heritage destination when visiting San Francisco and area.
Learn more about Alcatraz Island
Photos by Carrie Schafer and Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
